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Internet

Conspiracy Theorists sit down

It seems no matter what happens in this World we live in, there will always be conspiracy theories surrounding the event. Examples of these include Covid19, Vaccinations, Wireless technology, Pharmaceuticals etc. Many of these theories are spread by individuals who do not appear to be the full shilling or have underlying conditions that seem to cause them to rant and rave about what they believe in even when proved beyond all reasonable doubt to be on the wrong side of the facts.

Conspiracy theorists try in vain to prove their belief to be true by pulling text from genuine research pieces and using them out of context. Some attempt to bend or mold information to align to their own narrative. Some simply share articles and posts with absolutely no backing or merit.

Many of the most well known conspiracy theorists appear to be desperately clutching onto a former life or profession. Some examples include Judy Mikovits and Andrew Wakefield who are former researchers who have been discredited, disgraced, and struck off. It seems the message hasn’t landed with them yet that they are no longer relevant. Other examples include former journalists Gemma O’Doherty and John Waters who for a long time have seemed unable to verbalise a single coherent and factual piece of information. We should not forget about former musician Jim Corr and the downright insane ramblings of Katie Hopkins. There are too many to name them all. One thing is certain, these individuals need treatment and not a presence on social media platforms. It is not censorship to silence the non-sensible ramblings of these individuals. It is simply common sense.

Travel

Motoring in Ireland

There have been some who have called motoring a joy. Unfortunately in Ireland there is nothing enjoyable about driving. This is due to downright dangerous and selfish twits who insist on making the roads a dangerous place. Dangerous driving does occur in other countries, but the focus of this blog post will be on Ireland because some small reference will be made the Irish traffic legislation.

There are many infringements and examples of dangerous behaviour on the roads in Ireland and those responsible show no sign of stopping as long as they think they can get away with it.

Some of these problems are where motorists think it is okay not to purchase insurance just because they do not want to or because they cannot afford to. These uninsured motorists are not entitled to drive, yet they feel like they are. Another issue is with speed and mobile phone use. The drivers who most often drive with excessive speed or use a mobile phone while driving are generally poor drivers even without excessive speed or mobile phone use. Why might they think excessive speed or mobile use would improve their poor driving. The only conclusion is that they must be completely stupid. The driver who insists on speeding will often engage in the dangerous practice of tailgating motorists who choose to drive safely and according to speed limits. The practice of tailgating is one of those offenses that is openly ignored by An Garda Siochana despite being an official traffic offense that carries a fine and penalty points. Other examples include the drivers who are simply selfish and do not care who they kill or injure on the road. These completely selfish motorists are the idiots who consume alcohol and other drugs and break red lights.

The previous section illustrates how dangerous the roads can be for other drivers, however this also makes the roads dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. Unfortunately the former is not innocent in this as they seem to think they are entitled to cycle across footpaths and break red lights. In recent times, the cyclists have been joined by the twits using motorised scooters on footpaths.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) are also not without blame for the conditions on the Irish road and the result of their policies borders on neglect. They are selective around issues that they wish to create safety campaigns for. To date, there has been no safety campaign in Ireland to stamp out tailgating yet this practice is widespread across the country. Another failure of the RSA is around changes for learner drivers. These changes amount to a job only half done where there is no will or desire to finish the job. While it is welcome that learner drivers must purchase driving lessons from qualified driving instructors before being allowed sit a driving test, unfortunately the driving test itself has not been changed or adapted. The RSA through the N-plates have a way of highlighting the newly qualified drivers. Unfortunately they still cannot see the huge numbers of drivers who display N-plates after having passed the driving test and who still do not know the basics around safe driving.

Driving in Ireland is not a joy. It is simply another stressful mode of transport.

Marketing

Stay away from Nationwide Media Solutions…

I was contacted a month ago by someone from Nationwide Media Solutions Ltd (referred to as NMS Ltd hereafter). It was a cold sales call from a UK based company. The following is an account of my experience of their extremely poor level of service.

The sales rep will make the following claims:

1) NMS Ltd will work closely with you as their customer to ensure only the most popular Google search phrases are chosen.

2) The customer is in complete control at all times with regard to what phrases and advertisements are visible on the Google search results page.

3) The customer can contact NMS Ltd at anytime during business hours by phone or by email.4) The customer is placed on a 30-day rolling contract which can be terminated at anytime and they let the customer believe that it is possible to sign up for 1 month only in order to trial the service.

The reality and the facts are as follows:

1) The phrases are picked at random during the sales call by the NMS Ltd sales rep and using leading questions, seek the customer’s approval.

2) The customer has little or no control over the phrases and advertisements that are visible on the Google search results page.

3) It is impossible to contact NMS Ltd by phone because the phone is not answered during business hours and emails are rarely responded to and there is even less action on customer requests.4) They have ridiculous terms and conditions that prevent the customer from trialing the service for 1 month by requiring 30 days notice to cancel a contract of a 30 duration. This means that to cancel the contract, notice must be provided on the day the contract starts. No legitimate companies operate terms of this nature which effectively force customers to purchase a minimum of 2 months of the service.

My advice if you receive a call from an NMS Ltd sales rep is to immediately hang up the phone. The service is non-existent and extremely overpriced.

It is possible to gain better exposure on the first page of a Google search results through using white hat Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques. This would also be a cheaper option.

Dealing with NMS Ltd is a complete waste of time and money.

Be warned. Be Safe. Be Well.

Update April 2020: It is noted that Nationwide Media Solutions Ltd. was dissolved on the 2nd of October 2014. We hope this was a permanent closure of a criminal organisation. We sincerely hope there was not reincarnation of this scam organisation, but for your own safety please keep an eye out for the following individuals who were the former directors of Nationwide Media Solutions Ltd. The following individuals are not people we would trust.

  • Mark Beamer
  • David Paul Marsh
  • William Finnigan
  • Andrew Gittins
Technology

Are Repairtech Any Good, We Don’t Think So…

In case anyone is unsure who Repairtech are, they are a computer repair company that are unable to correctly repair computers. Their registered business name is A1 Technologies, and let me tell you, there is nothing A1 about them.

I sent a Dell laptop to them for repair. The problem was that the laptop could no longer charge the battery. The battery could be charged if inserted into another Dell laptop indicating that it was not the battery. The same charger was also used indicating that it was not the charger.
This Dell laptop was out of warranty and Dell quoted approximately €1,000 (euro) for the repair with the majority of this cost covering the labour. Repairtech quoted €100 for the repair.
I thought it sounded like a good deal until the technician returned the laptop to me in a worse condition than when he had collected it! The laptop was able to charge the battery once again, but he had created a user account that had replaced the existing user profile and this could not be restored. The hard drive then became corrupted. These problems could easily have been avoided if the technician had possessed the necessary skills to correctly repair the computer.

I will certainly look more carefully in future when choosing a computer repair company and I would highly recommend that people avoid Repairtech aka A1 Technologies unless they don’t particularly like their computer.

When I could not access the user profile, the technician mentioned they had a tool that could recover it but that it would cost another couple of hundred euro. I wasn’t prepared to pay this as it was quite clear the technician had been the cause of the problems that now existed on the
computer. It may have been a money making scam by Repairtech to fix one problem and deliberately cause another or it may have been purely down to incompetence on the part of the technician.

If you hear Repairtech advertising on the radio that they can repair your computer, forget you ever heard the advertisement. They cannot repair your computer. I feel that the Repairtech technicians are about as experienced in computers as the many ‘technical’ support teams that are in operation today. These ‘technical’ support teams as everyone knows are largely, if not completely, outsourced. They include people who have never seen a computer and have been provided with extremely poor training. I know this for a fact, I worked briefly for one particular company that had taken on another companys technical support. I am technical myself, but some of my colleagues struggled with the most basic of computer tasks. These people were supposed to be the experts and they demonstrated no prior knowledge or experience with computers. The training lasted approximately two weeks and comprised of some poorly presented PowerPoint slideshows and basic multiple choice open book tests.
The similarities between my former techno-phobe colleagues and the Repairtech technician were uncanny!

lease avoid Repairtech / A1 Technologies for your own sake and for the sake of your computer.
There are better options available. Repairtech are a waste of time and money.

Be cautious when choosing a computer repair company.

Update April 2020: A quick Google search shows no sign of Repairtech or A1 Technologies. Hopefully this means the company are no more. We just hope they have not been reincarnated under a new company name.

Internet, Scam

Full Tilt Poker – Inefficient cowboys…

Full Tilt Poker contacted me on the 19th of August 2009 claiming that a payment made to them on the 9th of June had been disputed by me and the payment had been returned to me as a chargeback.

I have provided clear non-disputable evidence that the payment was made successfully and my bank backed up this evidence. Full Tilt Poker continue to send automated emails repeating exactly the same message. They continue to claim that I owe them money. They obviously believe I am extremely naive and that I will simply pay the money again. They think it is ok to request a double payment.

Either Full Tilt Poker staff are extremely stupid and do not know how to check with their bank that payments have been completed successfully or they are operating a scam whereby they knowingly and regularly request double payments from customers. If the latter is the case, they obviously believe their customers are extremely naive.

Full Tilt Poker are also extremely slow to deal with any type of query. It takes a minimum of 5 days to receive a reply. Obviously email is too big a challenge for their small brains.

Update April 2020: Since this post was published, the directors of the company behind the Full Tilt Poker website were charged with fraud offences. These fraud offences relate specifically to a chargeback fraud that matches exactly with my experience above.

Security

Socos Teo associate with Martin ‘Viper’ Foley…

Socos Teo, a provider of office furniture and stationary based in Inverin in Co Galway, are associated with Martin ‘Viper’ Foley. As everyone is aware, the Viper is a notorious Dublin criminal.

A company that owes Socos Teo a small sum of money was contacted by this criminal organisation.

In my opinion, Martin ‘Viper’ Foley is the scum of the earth. Any business who uses Viper Debt Recovery and Repossession Services Ltd does not deserve to be in business themselves because all they are doing is supporting criminal activity in Ireland. This means that Socos Teo associate with and support criminals in Ireland and as such do not deserve to be in business and neither does Martin ‘Viper’ Foley.

(edit 21-12-09: The contact may not have been from the Viper Debt Collection and Recovery Services. The contact may have come from a Socos employee directly where threats were made regarding the debt collection agency that they were working with. I would consider this to be an endorsement of the Viper Debt Collection and Recovery Services and unacceptable behaviour.)