Travel Promotion Act

Travelling to America soon, and I have to go through ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) to enter without a visa. Joy. I quote:

On March 4, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Travel Promotion Act (TPA) of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-145. The Act directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a fee for the use of the ESTA system, comprised of $10.00 for each VWP applicant receiving authorization to travel to the United States and $4.00 for the processing of the ESTA application.

Apparently the word “promotion” means something different in America.

Found this on Milkround whilst looking for jobs

“TPP is a fast-growing software company, based in Leeds, deploying a market-leading computer system to the NHS. As part of the high-profile NHS National Programme for IT, TPP’s product, SystmOne, makes a genuine difference to clinicians and patient care across the UK.”

“Below are examples of the types of things that you could experience at TPP: developing good relationships within all levels of the NHS, from customers to Chief Executives”

“Salary and benefits:
– £20,000 starting salary
BUPA health and dental care (after six month’s service)

Spam

Some spam e-mail subject lines I have received recently:

  • Prices for these watches coincide with your abilities. Good to hear it.
  • A fabulous instrument will give you a fabulous reputation. Is it a theremin? I hope it’s a theremin! Oh…
  • Endless diamonds on your replica watch. Endless I tell you!
  • With a big stick you will be the king of the beach. Speak softly.
  • You need more blood to make your penis bigger? Yes, it seems spammers have now sunk to selling human blood.
  • Buy vi.aaaaaaaa-grrrrr.raaaaaaa and start. your n+ew hap,pier life in y-ear 2009! Full marks for enthusiasm, but loses some for being sent in November of 2009.
  • Our watch will look great even on any loser. :-(

Twidiocy

Wow, has it really been that long since I posted?

Anyway, this post is going to be about stupid things I see on Twitter. And I’ll update it over time. GO!

“Major Breakthrough in cancer research is trending topics! If cancer was to be eradicated, that would be the greatest gift from our God!”
link

“#tmobilesucks becuz its for black people”
link
(in fact anything said by “BeastialityestBeast”)

“wtf. Lil Wayne is going to jail. fkjdnfgbk;jdnfbdfjknbdf. dumb. best rapper thats alive bye.”
link

W1F3Y_B_R3AL DAAAMMM: BEN OF 4 AN HR AND #rihannasforehead STILL A #TT … OWELL BACK @ !T {IM GOIN !N}
link (oh god! the background!)

Stylus

So the stylus for my beloved Nintendo DS seems to have vanished into thin air, which is a little annoying. But even more annoying is buying a new one. Apparently if you want a new stylus, you also have to buy a case, “screen protector” (read: sticky back plastic), game cases and/or headphones (or “earbuds”, as most of the packs seem to call them. Does anyone call them that in real life?)

Eventually I managed to find one sans all the extras. Well, when I say one, I actually mean four. To quote Oscar Wilde:

To lose one DS stylus may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose 4? Seriously? What the hell is wrong with you?

Actually it’s not really four. Two are short styluses (styli?) for the DS Lite, and two are long styluses for the DSi. Of course this is even more illogical. I now have two DSi styluses which are almost useless as they don’t fit in the hole of my DS Lite.

To top it off, they come in absurdly large packaging, and it’s that damned plastic which I needed the help of my trusty swiss army knife to open.

stylus