Forget developing invisibility cloaks for the army, all they need to do is send them in on push bikes. You can guarantee that no one will see you, that includes people pulling out of side roads, setting off from being parked, opening car doors… list is endless.

What is it about being on a bike? If I was walking, I would be seen. Why when on a bike, no one can see you? The number of times I have had “altercations” with drivers.

This has yet to deter me, neither will the weather. I will continue to do my bit for the environment, as well as my wallet and persist with biking.

My route is not too bad, around 60% is cycle paths. Which is a must in Leicester as it is fair to say driving in Leicester is like an episode of Whacky Races.

I have a helmet, and I feel that I am the only one with a helmet. Have yet to see anyone else with a helmet.

Saying all that, there is a “warm” feeling when you hold up traffic momentarily. But less said about that the better. ;)

It seems that somehow, somewhere, those ever so kind and nice hackers are targeting my site resulting in it breaking. Apologies for this, I am getting to the bottom of it. Little b******s!

Update It seems the the problem relates to xmlrpc.php which has a reported vulnerability. An email from Technorati details this further:

Dear Fiaz Khan,

I hate automated messages as much as anybody, however there is a
situation that concerns thousands of bloggers. I’m contacting you
regarding information related to your Technorati profile
(http://technorati.com/people/technorati/bohboh)
and the blog you’ve claimed on Technorati
http://www.nextbigleap.com/blog

According to our data, that blog is running a version of Wordpress that
may be suffering from a security vulnerability. See
http://wordpress.org/development/2008/02/wordpress-233/
The version we have on record is WordPress 2.1.2

Blogs are being compromised via this vulnerability on widespread scale.
The most common symptom of a compromised blog is the presence of links
to spam web sites inserted in the blog that are obscured by style
attributes that render the text invisible but are still seen by crawlers
such as Technorati’s, Google’s and Yahoo’s. You can find these links
by viewing the source of the blog pages or, when using Firefox,
looking under “Tools” -> “Page Info” -> “Links”

The impact of these spam links that may be unwittingly placed on your
blog are reduced rankings or being flagged as spam. We’re
discontinuing processing updates from blogs that exhibit symptoms
of being compromised. If your blog has been upgraded already and this
message no longer applies to you, please accept my apologies.

For WordPress support, I recommend checking the forums at
http://wordpress.org/support/
I will be monitoring this topic in the Technorati Support forum to
be of additional help:
http://support.technorati.com/discussions/topic/3295

Thank You!
-Ian Kallen
Technorati / Architect

Somehow, spam had ended up in a hidden div at the end of one of my posts. I have yet to discover how. This came to light when i was notified by a RSS subscriber of a large list of spammy links

If anyone knows how this snook in then let me know. One site mentions site registrants gaining access to posts. Registration is disabled here so suspect there is another door in.

If anyone has any answers then let me know.

Thanks to Ben at subduedmedia.co.uk for letting me know.

I switched the TV on to catch a live concert being broadcast from Wembley stadium. It was the Live Earth concert. Knowing nothing about Live Earth I soon learnt it was an event helping promote a more greener way to live. Then it dawned on me, it was that thing Radio 1 have been banging on about for a while. We were all fortunate enough to see major rock, pop and whoever else they could find acts on stage, doing what they do best in an attempt to get us all to live a more energy efficient lives.

Keh?!?!

I watched about an hours worth, I saw the Foo Fighters (who incidentally were really good) play their most well known and popular tracks. Then the coverage switched to America. Ah, it’s a global thing. This is where it started to dawn on me what an utter pile of hot steaming poo this entire event really was. I happened to catch an R&B (or may have possibly been hip-hop) act called Akon. He strutted about the stage wearing a large medallion of some sort singing about doing a whole host of things to ladies. He was with his sidekick, a man with a mohican wearing a tartan skirt who’s role, as far as I could see, was to hoot and holla and certain times during the songs. Can someone explain how a topless, muscular man singing about doing things to ladies will force us all to switch off the lights, recycle more and use less water? To top it all, he made no mention of environmental issues, he instead thanked the audience for his number one single?!? (I can’t confirm this, as it was drowned out by a 6 week old baby passing wind in my ear as I was patting her on the back).

Other highlights : MNS Live Earth web site sponsored by Chevy. Pussycat Dolls strangely obsessed in getting the message across in a post gig interview that Philips energy saving bulbs would save the world. It seemed that everyone interviewed was about to or recently purchased a hybrid car.

Behind the entire event was Al Gore. A man with political aspirations staging an event to help, in his own words, “heal the world”. No personal agenda their then.

Then the events themselves, the power consumed, travelling, expenses, littering and so on. I know on the grand scheme of things that this doesn’t amount to much. But if the point of this was to send a message, it seems that the message had somehow gotten lost.

The acts themselves, never has there ever been a large group of artists all trying their hardest to “SELL MORE RECORDS”. They couldn’t give a monkeys about the environment, having so called stars tell us how to live when we all know they consume more resources and contribute to global pollution just as much as we do just smacks of hypocrisy at the highest level.

Couldn’t they have made better use of the time and money that went into the concerts? Al Gore must be in a position to get people to listen to him. Wouldn’t the effort that clearly went into staging the event have been better spent if directed towards actually doing something constructive? Apparently, according to a radio article I heard, most people came away having forgotten what the concert was about. Some have said that this concert did its job, it got us talking about the environment. True, but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than coming home thinking about ways to help, you instead come away commenting on how great the “Foos rocked” and whether Madonna really needed to swear.

Apparently, 2 billion people watched the event globally. That’s two billion electricity sucking TVs. Job done Al!

Personally, I could do a great deal more when it comes to living a more energy efficient life. I have started in a very small way, switching “things” off when not in use. Using less water, using the car less. It’s a start. To be honest, I am not sure what else I can do. Ah, a way of using the money spent on the concert. Instead, take the money spent on staging the concerts and combine it with a months worth earned by the stars that attended and give us normal folk the money and/or equipment to recycle waste, recycle rain water, install solar panels and insulate our homes better. Or maybe create more cycle paths, get manufacturers to drop standby modes, etc,etc…….

Update#3 - 25/7/2007 - It just gets worse. Despite claiming to have added free services to my account, I now have in my hands a bill detailing this months charges… you guessed it, I have been charged for everything. They have since credited back the money and I now have to go back to the Retentions department to ask them to sort the discount out… again! When this company was NTL, I called them a handful of times in 5 years, as Virgin Media I am calling them on average 4 times a month. I told you… baboons.

Update#2 - Looks like all is well again, (hopefully). I managed to speak to someone in their retentions department and they have sorted out my account leaving me with what I was promised. In response to queries regarding the actual broadband service, I have found it be on the whole, reliable and quick. Never really had any real problems, the only issues were with their internal billing system.

Update#1 - They have now given me back my phone number. Not even an apology for the cock-up. To make matters worse, the offer of a broadband upgrade from 4mb to 10 (then 20) hasn’t happened. I have been charged for the 20mb line, and the free 24/7 calls to 01 and 02 numbers also hasn’t happened. Basically, the entire upgrade to keep you as a customer offer never happened. grrr…

In a previous post I talked about how much better NTL had become as a result of their buyout by Virgin. Their customer support was near instant and their service worked smoothly… till recently. This story has to be the stuff urban myths are made of.

It started on Saturday, 24th June. At around 3pm I needed to make an outgoing call. I noticed that there was no dial tone. Naturally, I checked wiring and handsets to make sure all was well. Everything seemed OK. I was in a hurry so left to carry out an errand. Upon returning my wife passed on a message. Apparently, a friend had been trying to call and the phone was being answered by a complete stranger.

An angry call to Virgin Media telephone support later at a cost of god-knows per minute from my mobile (which incidentally took me 9 attempts) led me to the conclusion that they are the most incompetent bunch of baboons you are ever likely use. It turned out that, out of the blue, they cancelled my telephone service and had allocated my telephone number to another household. There was no request for a cancellation on my account, yet they decided, to the amazement of the manager I spoke to, to cancel my account.

Not only is the number the contact number for my web development business, it is also the main number for my other business. I managed to speak to the person who currently has my phone number, she told me that this was the second time it had happened to her. The reason they have my number is because their previous number was also as a result of a phantom request for a line cancellation where the number was the main contact number for another company. As with the previous company, she had received many calls regarding work. In her own words, “you have had calls all day”. So much so that they have taken the phone off the hook.

So, as of 1pm the next day, I am still without a telephone line. Apparently, I have to wait till Monday to reverse the change as that is when the dumb-ass telephone department opens.

Oh, did I mention that I won’t be reimbursed for the loss of earnings, time and the cost of calling their support line from my mobile phone? Idiots I tell you, IDIOTS!