Tag: internet

PEPPA PIG smashes records!! The kids love the hog..Smashes the billion dollar mark.. . My son, age 4, has seen the program, and while he doesn’t request it, he will quietly watch it when it’s on..

Five minute programs about a family with one pig that enjoys jumping in puddles? The makers didn’t know it would be this much of a success and quite frankly, how could they have?

It was created in 2004 in the UK.. the same place that gave us quirky comedy with MONTY PYTHON and amazing DR WHO shows also gives us pigs with sidewalks snouts who have overly dull existences and never raise their voices.. And the kids, these days, just love it.

If I have to theorize as to why, I would say this: We have complicated kids’ lives with technology and gadgets. Maybe this low key simple show that eliminates flashy animation is exactly what the child’s mind needs. Something kind and peaceful. Something that doesn’t inspire seizures, violence, rage, or hate. Just a pig that likes jumping in puddles.

May 20, 2015
THE SECURITY FLAWS AMONG US

BUZZFEED reports about a vulnerability in Verizon’s service that could have allowed anyone to view the personal information of any of its 9 million home internet customers simply by visiting its website with a spoofed IP address — the very same personal information that can be used to obtain password resets and gain full control over those home accounts…

Verizon Security Flaw Left Millions Of Home Internet Users Vulnerable To Attack

And this is of most interest to me, as of late.. this website has been hacked a number of times. And .. I have Verizon DSL.. Hmm..

May 14, 2015
WHAT’S YOUR FREQUENCY NORWAY?

Norway is about to set a trend. If you haven’t heard, they are going to become the first nation in the world to officially dump FM–frequency modulation–radio.

FM, around since the 1930s globally, has been a steadfast friend to people driving or radio fans for decades.

It’s obvious to say: The popularity of FM has waned recently.. though many still listen, they only do so often because they still don’t have other options..

Options such as DAB. Digital Audio Broadcasting. That is the new system being embraced by Norway. The Ministry of Culture is making the switch. By 2017, FM will start being phased out region by region. But the decision also seems obvious. In Norway, DAB listening now exceeds that of FM.

The squeeze is now on..
Whether other nations quickly or slowly follow Norway’s lead is up for time to decide. It’s clear that others will. And slowly by surely, as people give their love to the NET version of streaming instead of the FM version of sometimes staticy music broadcasting, the switch to DAB will become more of a global thing.

In America, though? I still sense an AM and FM lifespan to last a bit.. heck, there is still a market for ATARI, VHS, and even BETA. Radio will have a few more years before it goes the way of the FAX machine. Oh wait.. FAX machines are still around, too..

DAB, for the record, is used across Europe and Asia Pacific.. There are some interesting technical facts you can read on the means of broadcasting, should you want to.. But the important non technical takeaway: DAB is robust and for mobile listening–which is the really important fact. People have their ‘radios’ everywhere–their phones. DAB works well for the new style of music listening of our era.. DAB reception quality first degrades rapidly when the signal strength falls below a critical threshold, whereas FM reception quality degrades slowly with the decreasing signal.

And now NORWAY is paving the way for a whole new frequency.

So what’s yours, Kenneth?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkMhCLkVOg]

April 19, 2015
A FAMED INTERNET PERSON COMMITS SUICIDE

Draven Rodriguez didn’t want a yearbook image like all others..so he made himself different, posing with his cat and laser lights. It went on to become one of those ‘things of the internet,’ the little pieces of pop culture that seem to catch on and stick. Although for Rodriguez, this senior portrait of fame has ended very badly: News reports abounded this weekend that he committed suicide..

According to reports, he was 17 and took his own life on Thursday last week. The New York teen is now being mourned online, the same place where his image went viral only months ago.

There are also endless theories popping up in comments sections on stories concerning why Rodriguez died.. But this is the nature of suicide and stories like this: we don’t know.. we will never know, and quite frankly, perhaps we should not know.

Whether he intended the world to see his image or just to make high school fame, his creativity and fearlessness should be appreciated and applauded.

But the thing I fear the most for the family, the part that touches my heart more than anything else, is that most people who share the image of this innocent young man will never know the tragic outcome of his fate from days ago.. they will share his image and it will live on in Internet infamy.. it will continue to exist in the domain of the meme..

And all the while, the young man left his family and this world, took his own life, and ended whatever ordeal he was dealing with on this planet.. His family, the obituary said, cherished him. What family wouldn’t cherish an amazing soul in their lives? What parents wouldn’t give every bit of their love and support to a child?

I ponder this: Did internet fame somehow haunt this young man? Did his meme becoming a shared and viral picture destroy him, even though he only did it to celebrate the dare to be different and the joy of being creative? Did the world somehow stomp him down?

Only he knew that…

No words are adequate for suicide, and I would not even pretend to articulate the morals or implications of Rodriguez’s decision. I think we know them already..

February 23, 2015
Fortean TIMES website goes offline today

The website for the popular British publication FORTEAN TIMES is www.forteantimes.com.

The HORROR REPORT has been reading this publication and a fan since we entered onto the Internet scene over 12 years ago.

But now that website is in trouble..

According to information being posted on the FORTEAN TIMES Facebook page, owner of the site Dennis Communications (*http://www.dennis.co.uk/) is closing down the website!

Fortean Times typically updated daily with quick news bits and other weird headlines. But that has not occurred since November 20, causing speculation as to why the news outage on the site was happening.

Just days ago, the Facebook page posted a message alluding to the seemingly strange silence:

Apologies for the lack of news updates in the last couple of weeks. We are currently unable to access the FT website as Dennis Publishing are overhauling it. Hopefully back soon….

But even odder was the thought that someone who was able to operate and update a website wasn’t able to obtain access to it..

Them came this message posted only 17 minutes ago at the time the HORROR REPORT posts this:

Yes, the daily news dearth continues.

We have not been able to access the FT website for some time to update it.

Latest is that, sadly, the old www.forteantimes.com website is being closed down by Dennis Publishing today – so visit it while you still can.

Obviously, this is not exactly good news, but we are told that at least the message boards/forums are being kept and migrated over to a new FT subscriptions site, so at least all board users should still be able to carry on as normal.

Meanwhile, we have been frantically trying to archive much of the content of the FT site so it is not lost and can hopefully be reposted somewhere at some point in the future.

We still won’t have any way of accessing the new FT subs site until next year, it seems, so you’ll just have to bear with us for now.

And don’t forget that our special Christmas issue is out tomorrow, which should help keep you all going!

The British monthly magazine is devoted to providing information and news articles on the bizarre and strange, or the fortean. The magazine has also had a number of publishers during its time of life through present. The most recent, Dennis Publishing Ltd, took over in 2005. The roots of the magazine–and name–can be traced to Charles Fort. People who know anything much about paranormal know who Charles Fort is: He was the American writer about anomalous phenomena ..

Dennis Publishing boasts an arsenal of the print world on its website. It’s brands are voluminous. But why shudder a website that has been a friend of users for years?

These secrets lay somewhere on Cleveland Street in London today.
Meanwhile, a screen cap of the final day of WWW.FORTEANTIMES.COM is here:

The HORROR REPORT has contacted both Fortean Times and Dennis Publishing and will follow up in the case of any more information becoming available..

December 10, 2014
Taking the low road

DAILY MAIL reports: Online revenge: U.S. State Department tweets pics of dead ISIS jihadis »

After Tuesday night’s airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, the US government tweeted photos of four dead jihadis on an account that already distributed pics of airstrike gunsights and rocket launches.

The hashtag is #thinkagainturnaway.

I am thinking again. Someone else should be, too…

Couldn’t it be argued that United States is resorting to the same game that ISIS does: Tweeting images of the dead.. I am not sure how comfortable I am with this.. as a matter of fact, it makes me downright queasy to contemplate. Shouldn’t we be better than this?

September 24, 2014