I’m so disappointed I only recently found out about Community. It’s one of the funniest shows I’ve watched in ages! Caley (who’s already watched some of it) and I have been binge watching it on Netflix when we get a chance; we’re part way through season 2 right now.
Season 6 comes out in mid-March1, so I’m hoping to catch up to the end of season 5 by then!
Awesome. More info available here.
Update: I switched to the YouTube version, as the Vimeo page was removed for some reason.
Twin 1: What are you eating?
Me: Cheesecake.
Twin 2: Does it have peanuts in it?
Me: No.
Twin 1: Does it have chocolate in it?
Me: Yes.
Twin 1: Can I try some?
Twin 2: Can I try some?
Me: No.
Me: This is my reward for putting up with your crazy behaviour today. So no.
Thanks to using 2 cork stoppers to elevate the back of the laptop up about an inch.
Typing on this thing (a Toshiba R500) has been abysmal for the 4 years I’ve had this laptop. The keys are slidey, mushy, inconsistent, and generally just a mess of bad design and ergonomics. Tilting the laptop at least makes it more comfortable. Thankfully it’s being replaced soon, but boy do I wish I’d thought of this a lot sooner!
From the misspelt “From”, to the poor grammar and different typography of the phishing “hook” (the “please confirm your account” bit)… it’s like they’re not even trying anymore. I did notice it’s only the sign-in button which is a phishing link; all the others are legitimate Amazon URLs – which is probably how it got past the spam filter.
Reminder: never click any links in an email asking you to verify your account so that something bad won’t happen.
Brilliant.
I’ve had my GMail address for several years now; I don’t really use it for anything more than legacy accounts, logins, or as a spam trap. For the most part it just sits there in the background, silently passing on any messages it receives to my “proper” account, which is email with a custom domain hosted on Fastmail.
Over the last 12-18 months, I’ve been receiving a slow-but-steady stream of mail clearly meant for someone else: newsletters mostly, but occasionally something personal, and the odd booking confirmation. At first I put these down someone mistyping an email address now and then, or something to do with how GMail has fun with dots (“.”) in email addresses1. Whatever the cause, at first I would just delete them as soon as I realised they weren’t intended for me.
Over time though, it became apparent someone genuinely thought my GMail address was theirs. The nature of the emails became more personal, and there was an increasing variety of individuals and organisations mailing the address, and increasingly with information you wouldn’t want to miss. I’m guessing from the nature of the mail that they are older, but that’s just a guess. The profile I’ve built up is (I’ve written some details more vague than I know them to be, and excluded others):
Where before I used to just delete immediately, now I have taken to responding to certain mails, to let senders know they have a wrong address – in the hope they can let the intended recipient know they’re giving out the wrong address. Beyond this, I don’t know what to do… it’s not like I can email them to say!
Ads and websites which automatically redirect your iPhone to the App Store1 need to stop being a thing.
I’m seeing more and more instances of this user-hostile behaviour happening when I’m following a link on my phone. Usually it’s caused by an ad unit on the page, but now and again, it’s a site publisher who really, really, wants you to install their app.
Here’s the thing: if I wanted your app, I’d likely already have it installed. If I open a link to your website, I expect to (and am happy to) access your content there. Redirecting me to the App Store is a massive inconvenience and interruption; it takes me out of the app I was already using – often after I’ve already started reading your content – and puts me somewhere I wasn’t expecting to be. It breaks my concentration as my brain switches from reading your content to looking at the app download page. Assuming I still want to read your content after being treated like this, I now have to close the App Store, reopen the app I was just in, and hope I can pick up where I left off. The publishers who treat their users in this way seem to think I’ll:
Err, how about “no”? I was already reading your content. If you want to pimp your app to me, put a button or mention of it at the end of the article.
When this kidnapping of my attention is caused by an ad, I’ll sometimes go back to the site to finish reading, or I’ll go back to where I found the link, and send it to Pocket to read later instead (and without the ads to interrupt me). When it’s the publisher itself, chances are I’ll be annoyed enough I won’t return. You had your chance, and you chose to send me elsewhere instead. Either way, I sure as heck won’t install any app advertised using this method.
So can we please put a stop to this? It’s even worse than interrupting me to beg for an app review.
Photo above from the Smithsonian magazine, taken by Alex Cornell in Antarctica. See more at their website.
Looks better than I hoped for. I’m interested to see if/how they’ll get from the ghetto-looking disguise to something resembling the comic costume.
