Dirty Boxers

The sudden news about Michael Jackson’s passing last night caused millions of people to swamp online services to find out if it was true or not to such an extent that Google thought it was under attack, the BBC has reported. Millions of people who Googled the star’s name were greeted with an error page rather than a list of results. It warned users “your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application”.

“It’s true that between approximately 2.40PM Pacific and 3.15PM Pacific, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson and saw the error page,” said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker. It was around this time that the singer was officially pronounced dead.

Google’s trends page showed that searches for Michael Jackson had reached such a volume that in its so called “hotness” gauge the topic was rated “volcanic”.

The microblogging service Twitter crashed with the sheer volume of people using the service. But the amount of traffic meant it suffered one of its well-known outages. Before the company’s servers crashed, TweetVolume noted that “Michael Jackson” appeared in more than 66,500 Twitter updates.

According to initial data from Trendrr, a Web service that tracks activity on social media sites, the number of Twitter posts Thursday afternoon containing “Michael Jackson” totaled more than 100,000 per hour. That put news of Jackson’s death at least on par with the Iran protests, as Twitter posts about Iran topped 100,000 per hour on June 16 and eventually climbed to 220,000 per hour.

TMZ, the popular celebrity gossip site that broke the story following a tip-off that a paramedic had visited the singers home also crashed. There was a domino effect as users then fled to other sites. Hollywood gossip writer Perez Hilton’s site was among those to flame out.

Keynote Systems reported that its monitoring showed performance problems for the web sites of AOL, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Yahoo. Beginning at 2.30PM Pacific “the average speed for downloading news sites doubled from less than four seconds to almost nine seconds,” said Shawn White, Keynote’s director of external operations. He told Data Center Knowledge that “during the same period, the average availability of sites on the index dropped from almost 100% to 86%”.

Michael Jackson R.I.P
1958 – 2009

Source: BBC

I was randomly browsing my tweets, and came across this exciting news:
You can pre-order the latest installment of Red Dwarf – Back To Earth on 2-disc DVD NOW!

The release date has been confirmed as 15th June 2009, which if you think about it, is an amazing turn around when they only filmed this short series back in January. The DVDs also includes over 60 minutes of exclusive material.

I don’t know about you, but I have already got mine on order!

Over the past couple of hours, I have been using both the BBC iPlayer, and Channel 4’s new Watch Online service to generally catch-up on shows that I have missed while deep in a fever in my bed. To be honest, it is only recently that I have realised how much time has past since I had seen telly, eaten any food, or even had a simple shower. My eyes are still iffy, and even using this laptop to type this is more difficult than it would normally be, however I am amazed and shocked about the information that had been broadcast by the Channel 4 broadcaster about the web and how young people use it to access porn.

As this series of the show is called “Sex Education vs. Pornography”, I was interested to how the programme makers would try to include the two subjects in to the mix. I thought that the main purpose of the show would have been about teenagers asking questions that they had seen or heard from porn, and their experts would say “No dear…” and go on to explain what actually happens.

Now some of this did happen, and the show did use real male and female models naked to illustrate their points across to help educate the students, which seemed to work effectively. However a majority of the two episodes I have seen are a rampage about how the web should be censored, and how it’s the government and businesses that should be making sure our intertubes are safe for teenagers to roam. In fact more air time was about the whole internet ‘problems’ (with each commercial break returning with the same 3 or 4 facts about how dangerous the web actually is and YOUR teenagers are accessing this nasty material), than about the sexual explanations and discussions themselves.

In my view, this was an awful ‘Daily Mail’ type scare-mongering, than actual help for the young people needing the support that the programme supposedly says they need. The ONLY common sense came from Mike Galvin the MD of “21st Century Customer Experience” at BT (What a cool title!), who basically said that if the parents are skipping the stage that sets up the parental controls for their internet access, then it is their own fault – which is perfectly reasonable. In the next shot, the presenter has a go at BT for “…put[ting] the ball firmly back in the court of the Parents. So if you want to protect your child from porn, it is initially down to you” in a very disgusted and outdone presenting fashion. This is unfair for the programme makers to make these statements and make it sound like it is BT’s, or anyone else’s fault. For once, the buck has to stop at the parents, and no excuses of “I didn’t know how to turn the parental controls on” will work – they are right there on the install disc as they setup their broadband connection.

I just wish that they spent less time trying to restrict and manipulate the web in the UK (which is already happening with other self-appointed organisations and the government), and spent more time actually helping the teenagers they supposedly are really concerned about.

I have been suffering over the past couple of days with some weird symptoms, many of which I would normally put down to as a general nasty cold. However, today it hit me… hard, and I just HAD to go and get some medical help.

Firstly, I decided to call the NHS Direct helpline (0845 46 47), as I was still thinking it was some kind of cold, and didn’t want to go and waste a GP’s time. But when I discussed the situation, with aches and pains all over, and my face starting to swell – they said I really needed to go, and it wasn’t a cold. Problem was, I was in Cambridge trying to focus on Uni work, and my doctor’s were an hour away on the bus.

Eventually, I got home, and got checked out… I was shocked… I could either have Mumps or Glandular Fever. Now, I always thought I had been vaccinated when I was a baby against Mumps, and I saw what happened to my younger brother when he was struck down with Glandular Fever a few years back – so either way, not good.

I will keep you posted on the outcome of the blood tests that should be back within the next 7 – 10 days, which I’ve been told, will confirm what I have. Until then, I have been quarantined until further notice! Oh well!

Today has been an amazing mix of weird and insane madness due to, you guessed it, the white “falling from the sky” stuff! And even through it is cold, and everything looks pretty with the white highlight, I have discovered things that I had’t realised before, until now.

1. Local radio stations are useless
This morning I decided to listen to the two major local radio stations for my region: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire & Heart FM, both claiming they would keep us uptodate with the goings on. THEY LIED!

The spoke about the schools and colleges that were closed for the day, even spoke about the bus and train links between Cambridge and London, but did they once mention whether or not my uni was open at ANY point over 4hrs of listening (even after I emailed them both asking)?
I think you can guess the answer.

2. Buses like to surprise people
My town is supposedly lucky that we have a half hourly service to Cambridge… The problem this morning was that the one time I wanted to take, never arrived!

I had to wait, looking like a fool, for the next one / or the one I was actually waiting for which was running 30 mins late… you decide!

3. Kids, buses and snowballs do not mix
Every 5 mins or so yet another group of 8yr old boys think it is clever to pound the side if a double decker bus while it is moving… And why are they always able to hit the top deck everytime?

What’s most annoying about this is that one screaming/crying child downstairs still strapped to it’s buggy doesn’t make a sound when the bus is being used like a giant drum by 8yr olds, but when bus has to break hard-ish, and make a slight squeeking sound; the audio of what can only be described as “hell breaking loose” can be heard erupting from below.

4. Never use your iPhone on a bus
For the first time while blogging on the bus, a gentleman sitting across from me, is trying out ‘do’ me on “who’s got the better palm top”. He is waving about an old clunking HP device which you need to bend your knees to lift, while I have the sexy iPhone.

Yes I’m slightly biased, however this little war didn’t start until I got bored and started writing this beast. On the other hand, he also has an iPod in his pocket of which has not seen the light of day… So guessing by the scrappy state his earpieces are, he’s lost!

5. Iphone’s cannot…
Be used while wearing gloves, wet thumbs, or freezing cold hands.