Entry 0728: Blog: 1

I really did struggle Christmas with the decision to get wired up
with broadband. Mainly cus I knew I would need an XP machine running
to utilise the BT offer that I wanted to sign up to. My reasons were
really hinged on the time it took to carry out the uploads to the
site. I also wanted to make the images bigger and have a good content
of files for downloading. The 56K modem really did start to fall apart.
My Win98 IE5.5 was becoming embarrassing to explain to technical support
about why I couldn't activate pages. Anyway, enough said. I moved to
XP on another machine I was gifted from work and connected this via
a switch to the same monitor, mouse and keyboard as the Win98 machine.

And so the hub came and it didn't work. [ see previous blogs ] So I hard
wired the computer and it worked. But... I needed the machine networked
so I returned to trying to set up the wireless card. Still no joy with
BT Yahoo... So I tried being radical. I uninstalled all the BTYahoo stuff
from the computer. I uninstalled all the Belkin stuff except the driver
and then allowed XP to configure the wireless connection.. And guess what..
It all worked a dream. So you see, you don`t need all that stYAHOOpid 
BT software on the machine. It's sole purpose is to trap you into 
using their web browser so it can log your activity and tempt you with
purchasing stuff. This does rub me up the wrong way, as you know.

Anyway I finally had a reply from BT on the technical problem from a
guy whose name suggested he wasn't from this country ( not that I have
a problem with that ) ... First up I got a reminder from my BTYahoo Mail
page that I didn't have my active BTYAHOO desktop help working.. Sad that.
Anyway, his solution was so complicated, honestly. I just mailed back and
told him I dumped all the BTYahoo stuff and it works. What was so ironic
was the fact that his mail had been dumped in the BTYahoo SPAM recycle
bin on their site. So, they can't even bypass their own systems to
communicate. Thing is, without BTYahoo Mail, BTYahoo Messenger, BTYahoo
Desktop Help, BTYahoo Base Programs, BTYahoo IE Browser support, BTYahoo
Browser and BTTalk software on my machine, they have no way of knowing
if they really have communicated with me... And honestly ' YaWHOoo Cares '
I don`t even answer the phone... Not connected :-)

Never make assumptions about matters you cannot possibly control. The
consequences of chance are not easily stomached in the light of failure.
Be honest, be true, be certain and be sure. Credentials and reputation
are not something modern internet commerce understands. This has been
exchanged by the term ' Though shall conform or else '. I just love
playing with the ' or else ' cus I really couldn't give a **ck what
these big corporations think they can or cannot do. Mostly it really
is a case of what they truly are unable to do, and that relates to
customer care... A concept beyond them all.

Entry 0728: Blog: 2

I have today started the heavy task of photographing the latest editions
to the scuzz collection. Having had the rest that I promised myself from
all the collecting, I am now concentrating on getting the site updated.
Today was the Sanyo, IBM, Acorn 3010, and all the related literature. 
I have the images uploaded to the transfer dock for HTML working. I have
added a progress bar to the base of the website content page so folk
can see just where I am with web update.

In February I shall start interacting again with the groups, when I have
set everything up on the XP Machine. I am without my dial-up accounts
at this time but no doubt I will be back in the front line by the time
of the web update. So activity both in chat and buying will start again.

There is definitely a stirring in the scuzz slumber chamber as we speak.

Entry 0728: Blog: 3

Strange how quickly the older formats are forgotten. I have a problem
with PIPEX cus when you click the link to a file with the extension of
LHA from my site it does not automatically download to your computer.
The response from PIPEX suggests I Winzip it first. What really is the
point of that with an Amiga dedicated site. And yet when I do the same
thing on the Lycos Mirror of my site it works fine. Trouble is when you
communicate with these tech heads they really do not have anything in
front of them other than say a LINUX or MS machine all running the 
latest and greatest. Just what they do to their systems to prevent
the automatic downloading of an LHA file bewilders me. Suffice to say
my work around is to link all the files from the PIPEX site to the
Lycos site. And I suggested to the techhead he try the link and see
just how effectively works from another web hosting package. I did
suggest that PIPEX should advise buyers of packages of just what 
their hosting does not support. I mean, can you imagine Aminet moving
to PIPEX and finding this out..... :-(

Thing is I moved to PIPEX cus Lycos cannot support the older platforms
on dial up. Even the most modest image cannot be viewed from say an
Amiga or Win98 machine running IE5.5. Just falls over. I moved to
PIPEX because of this, just to find this other problem.

Anyway, if you read the base of my CONTENT page you will see that I
have now reactivated all the links and so the AMOS and AIO stuff is
working, and to top this I have uploaded all the AIO disk mags up
to number 70 on the site. 

Entry 0728: Blog: 4

You will see from the blog above that I have now used the Lycos site
for the file transfer stuff for the Amiga. I have also begun to set
up the scuzz-retro site as a major mirror as I have a load of space
free on this site. I have put links to the mirrors on the base of
the CONTENT page. Be patient with the scuzz-retro site as I really
have only just started uploading there. Good thing I have this
broadband set up... Whoo hoo !! [ who said that ]

Additionally I have purchased the domains scuzzblog.com and scuzzblog.co.uk
and today added pop3 accounts and webhosting from 123 REG. These sites
may eventually hold the BLOG store and in its entirety. The aim being
to secure separate spider and Google activity to prevent a well
known rock channel from getting it. And so the scuzz retro thang
grows ever bigger.

I also purchased copywright-ink which is a subsidiary of scuzz-retro
but that's another story.. 

Entry 0728: Blog: 5

Chick stuff ...


OK OK !!!  Not totally related to the retro collecting, but still
computer related.. is the art of scanmastery. This was introduced
to me during my internet meanderings into the pleasures of the
female form... [ goodness me .. I am human you know !!!! ] Anyway
when mucking around with the Newsgroups and IRC I cam across this
band of Scanmasters, like Enigmatist, Harli, Gorek, Tiger etc who
fought against copyright factors to launch onto the internet very
very skillfully reworked scanned images of mostly women, taken from
the pages of well known magazines. All these guys followed a strict
code, of which the most sacred was never to scan an image that had
already been scanned by another scanmaster. The reason for the
name scanmaster comes from the original series by SCANMASTER of which
there are a thousand. All images are named and numbered, and a bit 
like trading cards, the fun is collecting them all. Really don`t
try this, unless you have months of spare time. However, the skill
in reproducing scanned images and re working using Photoshop is an
art form, and one, like the street art of taggers, is not wholly
legal. One of the most famous scanmasters is HARLI who did have
a very informative page on the internet on how to deconstruct
an image and reconstruct into a scanmaster image. I do believe
that Harli is a girl. All the images in a collection carry a 
TAG and are listed in a CV which you can often download from
the newsgroups. Japanese scans are even more elaborate, as they
have a far larger wealth of imagery to play with. Example would
be the film and music star Jennifer Lopez who has but a scattering
of worthy images in say FHM, when the equivalent in Japan would
feature in a fifty page photo book. Just type Chisato Morishita
on Google and you will see what I mean. Japanese artwork is often
astounding to say the least.

Anyway, the TAG on this site to which I will say I know not who is 
the originator, is scink. And he works out of the art fraternity
Omnifembotics Laboratories... All totally fictional, just to blur
the originator of the artwork. And the reason is self evident
when you look at the source of these images. So there you go...

That link has been on the website for some time..But nobody has 
ever really noticed it. Thing about scans... Is they are her today
and gone tomorrow.

PS: A scuzz is a person whose reputation is questionable
And a scink is an African Lizard or a kind of soup.

A scuzzlebutt is a fictional character from Southpark featured
on my personal page. [ Journeys End ]

Entry 0728: Blog: 6

Forget sexy women for a while, you do need a health warning with this
little article... ' Windows Vista is going on sale ' [ wait for it ]
In six different editions [ seriously ]

In this months Computer Buyer Leon Bailey reckons.. [ quote ]
' Windows Vista Basic edition is really, well, a bit rubbish.
Of course, Premium and Ultimate are also a bit rubbish ' [ end quote ]

He reckons that anyone buying Vista now is an idiot and asks of these
idiots ' Which version of Vista did you plump for ? ' Vista Business,
Enterprise, Home Basic, Home Premium or Ultimate. Interestingly only
three of these incarnations will be readily available. Poor Leon has
really lost interest in operating systems, saying that its been some
15 years since it was even ever so remotely interesting. He remarks
that at that time computer users had a choice. He even gives the 
good old Amiga a mention.

He doesn't consider beta testing an operating system that has yet to
settle down from six versions an upgrade from the established XP.
And so views that anyone thinking that Vista is an upgrade is truly
an idiot. Not my words.