My hovercraft is full of eels

If you live in Australia, and Melbourne in particular, it would be hard not to notice that the Commonwealth Games have been underway for a little over a week now. (If you've never heard of the Commonwealth Games then you're probably not from a former British colony. It's somewhat like the Olympics but without all those pesky countries such as the USA, Russia and China to make us feel inadequate.)

Anyway, living in Melbourne as I do, it's hard not to be overwhelmed by the media coverage here and the constant whir of helicopters overhead, no doubt protecting us from all those nasty would-be terrorists that somehow think it's worth attacking a country that is 85% uninhabitable, in constant drought and has nothing much to offer (according to our media) besides sport.

Australia, it seems, fairs pretty well in the 'Games. At last tally we had close to double the number of medals of the nearest competitor—Hardly surprising considering we're second only to the US in terms of public dollars spent on sports.

However, all that money seems a little wasted really. Not because I don't think sports are important for the health of the nation but because if you were to actually sit and watch any of the television coverage, or read anything in the print media, you'd soon start to wonder if there are actually any other nations competing.

I've looked long and hard. I've watched every television channel and read evey newspaper I could find but try as I might, I get the distinct impression that the only people competing are from Australia. Indeed in some events, I'm not actually sure what the rules are as no one appears to win a gold medal—the whole point I would have thought. For some strange reason, the only apparent competiror in the race (an Australian do less) somehow had to "make do" with a Silver medal or stranger still, receive no medal at all even though they ran a personal best time.

I know for a fact there are other competitors from other nations here in Melbourne (I presume for the purpose of competing) but besides those named as missing—possibly seeking political asylum—I'm yet to actually see any compete or win medals.

Perhaps I need to go and see an actual event live and have a look for myself? Then again, maybe I'll stay at home instead and let all those fantastic images of Australians doing so well allow me to forget for a moment the fact that we spend more on our sporting elite than we do on health for the average citizen.

Posted by Simon Harris at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Like just about everyone these days, I have a Delicious account. (For those of you still living in early 2005, it's a social bookmarking site.) I use it whenever I have a link to something that I want to remember personally and also for links that I would have blogged about but for which I don't feel a blog is really the appropriate medium.

One feature I love about deli.cio.us (yes that is the correct spelling) is the inbox. If you haven't looked at it, it's a great way to keep track of other peoples bookmarks. So, rather than subscribe to individual bookmark feeds, you can instead add each feed to your inbox and then subscibe to your own inbox. This way you get all the feeds in one shot and it also lets others see what bookmarks you are interested in.

So, if you're remotely interested in checking out things that I'm interested in or things I think you might be interested, it's easy to subscribe to my own links or even subscribe to my inbox to see links other people have that interest me.

Posted by Simon Harris at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Apparently a little more than just the text of James' and my book was translated for the GermanDutch market.

So, I couldn't help myself...apparently you don't even have to be translated to be given a pseudonym.

Posted by Simon Harris at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So Phil asks me why I haven't blogged in so long. The quick answer is: I haven't had anything much to enrage me recently and consequently I haven't had much if anything to blog about. (It's amazing what time away from a computer does for ones mental health.)

The I receive this email:

Dear eBay Member:

kwikdigital has informed us that they have not yet received your payment for the following item: CANON IR 8500 w/ NetworkPrinter +K3N FINISHER 85PPM - (#7557660205)

No action is being taken against your account at this time. However, it is important to remember that when you bid on or buy an item you are agreeing to a contract between you and the seller. If the situation isn't resolved within 7 days of this reminder, you may receive an Unpaid Item strike under eBay's Unpaid Item Policy.

If you don't respond by Mar-03-2006 you may receive an Unpaid Item strike.

Most Unpaid Item disputes can be resolved through direct communication between the buyer and seller, and we encourage you to work with your trading partner to reach a resolution.

Regards,

eBay

Only I'm not an eBay member; never have been; don't seem myself ever becoming one. So I do the "right" thing and forward it to abuse@ebay.com and for my efforts I receive another email:

Thank you for writing to the eBay SafeHarbor Team.

The address you wrote to (safeharbor@ebay.com) is no longer in service. Please re-send your email to us through the Contact Us page listed below.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

Using this service will help us direct your email to the right department and quickly respond to your inquiry. Choosing the most appropriate topic from this page will help us answer your question faster.

REPORTING SPOOF

If you received this message after attempting to report an email that appears to have come from eBay but actually directs you to another site, you must forward the message to us again by using the forward function of your email program. Make certain that spoof@ebay.com is in the "to" field. Do not alter the subject line, add text to your message or forward the email as an attachment.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sincerely,

eBay SafeHarbor Team

Tips to Avoid Spoof:

To help our members better protect themselves from spoof Web sites, we have developed a new feature for the eBay Toolbar called "Account Guard." Account Guard includes an indicator of when you are on an eBay or PayPal Website, buttons to report fake eBay Websites, and a password notification feature that warns you when you may be entering your eBay password into an unverified site. To learn more about the eBay Toolbar with Account Guard, open a new browser and type www.ebay.com/ebay_toolbar into the address bar. Note that eBay will never send you an email that includes a download as an attachment or a link that goes to a page with a download.

eBay also recommends that you ensure that your Web browser, operating system, and virus protection software are up to date. Check for updates at the "Windows Update" link on www.microsoft.com and scan your computer for viruses often.

Which is all very well and good but I'M NOT AN EBAY MEMBER.

So I follow the link provided to "report spoof" only to be confonted by a series of questions which I dutifully answer and eventually end up on a page telling me how, as an eBay member, I can:

• Know that an email is really from eBay
• Tell if Email and websites are impersonating eBay; or
• An overview of what to do if I suspect account theft

Which would be realy helpful except I wouldn't have bothered to come here if I didn't already suspect some kind of fraud because, well geee, I'M NOT AN EBAY MEMBER.

Scouring the page a littlke I found, among all these options, an "Email Us" link which of course I cheerfully click on only to be confronted by a screen asking me to Sign-In which as you know by now is not possible because: I'M NOT AN EBAY MEMBER!

However, being the kind souls that they are, there is also another button marked "Register, it's fast and free."

So it would seem that to contact eBay in order to inform them that their system is being used to send unsolicted email to someone who IS NOT AN EBAY MEMBER requires me to become an eBay member. Hmmmm.

Thankfully, it's even easier and "free'r" to configure my email software to block anything coming from eBay.

Posted by Simon Harris at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)