that canadian girl

Remember when I was complaining about being unable to read Yahoo Mail’s verification image a few weeks ago?

Looks like I’m not alone getting frustrated with this trend of adding Captchas to every booking form you fill in or comment you want to leave on someone’s blog. Seth finds himself fighting with the Ticketmaster site, trying to guess their awful captcha!

How user-unfriendly can a site get? Keeping in mind that sites like these have as main goal to take bookings. This type of mindboggling image can’t be helping their conversion and would be enough to convince me to book my tickets elsewhere, if possible.

Michael, from figby.com, also points out an idiotic registration captcha. “If you want users to sign up, please don’t use a CAPTCHA system in your site unless it’s really easy for ordinary people to read without pulling the graphic into Photoshop for sharpening and enlargement. If you don’t want users to sign up, you could just remove the registration page rather than torturing people with one of these MENSA-level CAPTCHAs.”

No way! I think these BrightFeet Light Slippers were made for me! I can finally see where I’m going when I need a wee in the middle of the night, but without blinding myself by turning the ceiling light on.

I truly AM the queen of clumsiness! There was a certain yogurt incident a couple of weeks ago; I took the lid off a small yogurt and dropped it on the carpet so quickly I reached for it to pick it up… with the hand that was holding the full yogurt tub! I’m such an idiot sometimes! Between that, near-spilling a bottle of water on my boss’s laptop and tripping on my own feet when walking on an otherwise perfectly flat surface, I’m lucky I haven’t injured myself more often.

And people wonder why I’m not keen on sports like snowboarding and rock climbing. Well, let’s see… I’d probably manage to kill myself in the stupidest ways possible, like falling off a ski lift or strangling myself with a rock climbing rope while standing on terra ferma.

I’ll stick to less dangerous sports like knitting and gossiping. Though I’m sure I’ll somehow find a way to injure myself with a knitting needle!

(via Shiny Shiny)

Last night, we stayed at some friends’ house and had a really good evening. Nice food, good wine, and great friends. And one really fun game!

We played Buzz, a music quiz game I’d read about on the BBC site a few weeks earlier. It sounded like a fun game, if you had great musical knowledge. As it turns out, even my non-existent knowledge of pop music, old or new, didn’t matter terribly. The game is great fun, and with over 5000 questions, the extent of the gameplay is certainly enough to last many sessions during the Christmas season!

There’s no worries about arguments on who’s cheated and how points are counted, because Buzz, the ever smiling cheese meister host, is impartial. And he’s also Australian. In fact, he’s Jason Donovan!

And as if these reasons weren’t enough to convince me, the game (for PS2) with 4 controllers costs only £30 on Amazon.co.uk, so a bargain to keep everyone entertained during family parties! I highly recommend it!

This could explain the lag issues some people were complaining about today…

The race is on!

Before we even put away our summer clothes, shops bring in the Christmas stock; chocolates in festive colours, sparkly decorations for the tree but most of all, electronics of all sorts, announced with as much fuss as possible.

The gadgets market has undeniably gone beyond the stereotypical young hip man with money to burn. Everyone, man, woman, young and old, has taken a fancy to the iPod or the Nintendogs – it’s just the way it is.

Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins demonstrates that already, between July and September, trends are clearly visible as to which gadgets have won the hearts of consumers.

“Hitwise Search Intelligence reveals that searches for ‘ipod nano’ have overtaken searches for ‘ipod’ for the first time, and are set to overtake searches for ‘psp’ (Sony’s PlayStation Portable) which launched to a fanfare of enthusiasm earlier this month. Since reaching a peak in the week ending 3rd September, searches for ‘PSP’ have since fallen by 34%.”

Meanwhile the E1 ROKR phone, also known as the iTunes phone, has been getting the attention it deserves – None. Or at least, very little. Because it’s completely rubbish and doesn’t come up the ankle of gadgets like the Nano or my very favourite, the Mini.

While the PSP remains quite a popular search term, the Nintendo DS doesn’t seem to register on the radar yet. I’m sure it’ll come, as being an unexpensive unit (£90-100 with Nintendogs game included versus the £180 PSP pre-games and pre-protective case) launched in the Spring, it now has the potential of reaching an otherwise less often targeted group of consumers.

Let’s be honest here, Nintendogs is a game where you teach your virtual pet dog to do tricks at the command of your voice and interact with other virtual dogs. I’m not sure it’ll quite cut the mustard for the usual GTA kill-kill-die-die hardcore gamer. But it’ll certainly suit those too old to own a Tamagochi. Because that’s effectively what it is, a very sophisticated Tamagochi.

As the Hitwise article points out, add the Xbox 360, due in early December, and we have quite an explosive mix racing to be the most awaited present under the Christmas tree.

Have YOU started your shopping yet?

Had to happen, didn’t it? The same happened to so many other illegal music-sharing sytems that BitTorrent’s system was too good for the industry to pass.

The idea? Gather movies, music, games, and software from Hollywood studios and indie producers alike and distribute them to consumers. BitTorrent would generate revenue either by selling ads within the content or charging a fee for the files.

That’s a pretty dramatic turn for a technology that up to now has been so closely associated with illegal file sharing. BitTorrent was developed and released in 2002 by independent programmer Bram Cohen as a way to efficiently distribute the free Linux operating system that competes with Microsoft’s (MSFT ) software. But it was quickly commandeered by file sharers for illegal swapping of copyrighted movies and TV shows.

Such a strong and popular system, BT created a whole new channel for itself and now, it’ll be made legit by asking people to pay for their downloads. Sounds really rather familiar, yet I’m not feeling that it’ll really be successful. BT may have shown users how easily they could get the content, but it’s also given them all a taste for free stuff.

As long as Hollywood turns out big-budget pure-rubbish movies, I’ll be all for people finding the movies online for free. They’re simply not worth what we’re charged. When I find a truly good movie or music album, I’ll be more than happy to pay for it. Unfortunately, when it comes to movies, the good ones are rather sparse these days.

I’ll be curious to see how much they plan on charging users. It’s likely it’ll be ridiculously expensive for a chunk of data that costs them nothing to distribute in comparison to a physical DVD. Not only are they likely to be overpriced but your average BitTorrent user doesn’t necessarily have a credit card to pay online, purely because of the age group they belong to.

Bah, the idea seems to be riddled with problems, but the big bucks will do their best to make things go their way, as usual.

(Found via Digg)

John Wells covers a lifetime of Mac operating systems – From the humble Apple Macintosh System 1.0 which booted from a disc to the ferocious OS X Tiger. Check out the screenshots for a real blast from the past!

Certainly brings back memories for me, and certainly will for my dad as well. I belonged to the Apple camp from a very young age, playing Pong-like games on my grandpa’s first Mac in the late 80’s. I seem to remember the pre-MultiFinder days, either that or my simple child mind was satisfied with a single program opened at once. I’m guessing my first Mac would’ve been around System 5 or so though dad could confirm that…

Then I clearly remember System 7, and the systematic labeling of everything that belonged to me in orange or blue (“Essential” or “Cool”). By that point, I was lucky enough to have my own Mac in my very own bedroom. I believe this would also have been the first time I plugged a modem in (after my grandpa handed his old Hayes 14,400bps modem over after realising it was too complicated to use to fax things to his Rotary friends), borrowed “The Great Canadian Handbook” at the local library and discovered the wonders of the National Capital FreeNet, as well as a truckload of BBS’es. Many years of dial-up, angry parents who pick up the phone to try and get me off the line, and a lot of long waits to download useless junk til 2 in the morning.

[System 7 was also the era of the infamous "Jeu de chameau" aka Desert Trek. Many evenings were wasted playing that in the basement.]

System 8 and OS 9 are a blur of frustratingly crashy systems, shared computers and a lot of sad Mac faces as extentions are savagely deleted by unknowing teeny little girls. At this point, I was also finishing High school and starting University, dealing with late nights and headaches while attempting to convert my PowerPoint presentations from Mac to PC without too much damage.

And I went astray… Like a lost sheep, I went riding into the sunset with my brand new Windows computer, thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread… Ok maybe not but I knew it was “normality” and I wouldn’t struggle so much with compatibilty. I saw the first betas of OS X but at that point, my iMac had become an absolute ruin so I didn’t bother looking into it too much.

And now, after about 4 years, I’m coming home to Mac. Counting down the days til my precious new Mac Mini arrives! It’s a birthday present that brings me back to my good ol’ roots!

Ok, here’s a memory test, first of all for my sisters, but for anyone who might recognize this game!

You had to race across the desert on a camel, walking or running, ensuring you ate, drank water and gave your camel some rest. The Barbarians weren’t far behind and could catch up with you. You came across oases, caravans and at the end, your father’s castle or something along those lines.

It must’ve been the mid-90’s or so, I would guess I played it on a Mac since it’s all we had at the time. It was played in a small window no bigger than a DopeWars window, with the buttons for eating, drinking, etc. I thought it had “Desert” in the title, but I guess not because doing a Google search, it only comes across “Through The Desert” and that definitely doesn’t seem like the right game.

Somebody help me remember, and if possible, find this little crap game that’s been making my brain itch for a few weeks!!!

Edited on 02/08/05: MY SISTER ROCKS! She may not have found the game itself, but she found the name for me – Desert Trek, dating back some years… This made my day! Merci Jo, t’es trop cool!

America is truly mad.

The House of Representatives has called for an investigation after finding out about a hidden sex scene in a game with a “Mature” rating (17 and over) in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Now, allow me to find a few flaws in their sudden uproar and indignation.

Before I even say anything, have a look for yourself and tell me whether that’s too heavy for the eyes of a 17-year old. [Sorry about the advert that you need to skip...]

First off, GTA: SA’s little hidden sex scene is hardly any worse than the average suggestive hip-hop video you’ll catch on MTV mid-afternoon. Seeing a digital gangsta have sex with a cheaply rendered model of a girl with triangular boobs won’t inspire anyone to have sex. All-ages TV and movies have dished up worse sex scenes, however much America tries to play prude.

Secondly, if your 17 y/o son has managed to get on the net and find that Hot Coffee patch, install it and run it, he’s most likely seen much MUCH worse already on the net. If his mates haven’t goat.se’d or tubgirl’d him yet [mothers, please don't ask... and most of all don't follow those URLs], his curiosity’s probably led him to a few naughty sites anyways. Reality is, most kids that age have seen worse than what Rockstar Games has sneaked into the game for a laugh.

So all in all, if you want to shelter your 17 y/o son to ensure he sees none of this dirty thing they call sex until he turns of age, that leaves you, dear American parent, a whole 12 months at the most before your innocent sweet child can legally watch filthy movies and play games with naughty hidden scenes. Yep, keep convincing yourself that’s really going to change anything to his upbringing.

Woohoo, we have the internet at home finally! And it’s a day early!

Muahahaha and the best part is that I get to enjoy it alllll to myself for a few hours until Andrew comes home from going on a rough’n'tough forest bike trek with a friend!

Ok, I’ve got a whole lot to tell you over the next few days so pull yourself a chair and pour yourself a drink…