Linkblogging
Meta: Yes, I’ve joined the lazy-sods club. Here’s my del.icio.us linkblog. Blame that luscious posting bookmarklet which just makes it sooo easy…
Muff News
Travel: I’m just back from a great road trip around Nevada and Arizona – lots of fun was had, and I even came out $100 up on the blackjack!
In other travels, my mate Eoin recently visited Muff, Co. Donegal, and made sure to get a picture of the event.
Muff is well-reknowned as one of those towns with a silly name; the story goes that they even have a SCUBA diving club, called — guess what – “Muff Diving Club”. Sadly, the reports are apparently greatly exagerrated. Eoin writes:
I have been hearing the story of the ‘muff diving club’ for the last 10 years, and now i can categorically state that its an urban legend. No such thing. There was a ‘top muff’ petrol station though where we picked up a few keyrings. The girl behind the counter was trying to give us all 200 keyrings left in the bag as she was so sick of muppets like us coming in for a laugh.
Tags: blackjack, club, event, fun, mate, muff, picture, road, story, travel, trip
MS and GPL software
GNU: Let’s all be very nice and friendly for our latest convert to the GPL club, Microsoft. Hi, MS!
Irish Anti-Spam Law, and Gaven Stubberfield Arrested
Spam: Let me take this moment to welcome our UK friends to the ’spam now illegal’ club; unlike the US, the European and Australian anti-spam laws seem to be shaping up nicely, requiring opt-in before ‘email marketing’ can be sent.
This actually happened in Ireland a couple of weeks ago, but I think I forgot to mention it here, so here’s the details:
Announcement, full text, full text as HTML. (It’s section 13 you want to read. Note that OpenOffice seems to have miscounted the bullet points in the HTML version ;)
The good stuff:
- it’s opt-in, not opt-out like the cruddy CAN-SPAM act in the US. so that’s a fundamentally anti-spam position. Thanks EU!
- each spam counts as a separate offence = lots of damages, I’d guess.
forging/disguising of originating header info is prohibited.
The bad:
- if you run a mailing list, and you’re not sure that you got everyone’s permission to receive your mails (and if not, why not?), you’d better do a reconfirmation run quick ;)
- no private right of action; but that’s pretty much std for Europe. we’re reliant on the Regulator to take action against spammers.
- spamming to mailing lists is not prohibited — but then, I haven’t seen that blocked by any other law.
- it’s unclear if spamming to role addresses (e.g. ‘foo-admin’, ‘info@company‘, etc.) is prohibited. I would guess that if they wind up in the mailbox of a ‘natural person’ it would be. But this may have to be worked out in court.
- talks about ‘direct marketing’. Does this mean that faked-up ‘newsletters’ will be a loophole? Also, means that religious and political spam is permitted. But I haven’t seen much of that in Ireland… yet…
won’t be any good against US-based spammers. No surprise there. HOWEVER it may be useful against large multinational companies taking advantage of CAN-SPAM’s relaxed regime to indulge in a little spamming, if they have an Irish office.
And, of course, it’ll mean that Ireland won’t develop Florida’s reputation any time soon, which is a good thing.
Will it be useful against spammers in other parts of the EU? That’s another question. Anyone know? I know of a bunch in France I’d really like to deal with.
Brian Nisbet reckons it may.
I was reminded by this letter from the Department of Communications received by UCC , which notes:
But the Minister has announced that he intends using Ireland’s Presidency of the EU to initiate global partnership in clamping down on ’spam.’
Global? Just don’t ask for any help from the Florida state government. ;)
Spam: Other (big) spam news: ‘Gaven Stubberfield’ arrested for ‘falsifying his identity so that his e-mails could not be traced’. SBL say that Jeremy Jaynes, aka ‘Gaven Stubberfield’ is the eight-most prolific spammer in the world, and is ‘notorious for ‘horsey porn’ spam’.
Irish: Irish WWW pioneer Peter Flynn now has a weblog, it seems. As far as I can tell, Peter was responsible for much of the good stuff at celt.ucc.ie, which reminds me to post this link to Pangur Bán I’ve been meaning to post.
Messe ocus Pangur Bán,
cechtar nathar fria saindan:
bíth a menmasam fri seilgg,
mu memna céin im saincheirdd.
In my case, it’s mise agus Bubba Liath, otherwise pretty close despite the intervening 11 centuries…
Tags: action, can-spam, club, html, info, mailing, marketing, moment, spam, text
Threats close Kabul’s Irish bar
BlogStart:
Booze: BBC: Threats close Kabul’s Irish bar:
Terrorism alerts have prompted the owners of Kabul’s only bar to close down temporarily. The Irish Club has been a roaring success with correspondents reporting hundreds of drinkers inside at a time since it opened on Ireland’s national holiday, St Patrick’s Day.
But the popularity of the bar, which is open only to foreigners in the predominately Muslim state, appears to have attracted the interest of terrorists, United Nations staff in the city said. ….
Owners of the bar hope it will reopen next week, but its clientele is set to shrink after the UN banned its staff from going there for security reasons and other foreign aid organisations and diplomatic missions have issued warnings to their personnel. ‘It’s been placed off limits indefinitely after warnings that it could be the target of a terror attack,’ said UN spokesman David Singh.
Still, the owners say they’ll do some renovation work while it’s closed. Looking forward to the Beeb story about ‘Kabul’s Irish bar now boasts extensive beer garden and function room’ next month…
Spam: In other news, it seems AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail are banding together to ‘reduce spam’. This could be interesting.
Tags: bar, bbc, blogstart, booze, club, irish, spam, staff, terrorism, threats
Afghanistan’s First Irish Pub Opens
You just can’t get away from ‘em. Irish bars, I mean.
‘The first public house in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban has opened - and it’s Irish. The Irish Club opened on a secluded side street in the centre of Kabul last month - on St Patrick’s Day.’ …
‘There are Afghan staff, of course, but they have all been given Irish names - Kevin, Jimmy, Michael, George - ‘to protect them from possible retaliation’ …
Fazel Ahmed Manawi, the deputy supreme court justice, said any Muslims found drinking at the Irish Club will be punished. ‘We have got a lot of foreigners living in our country and unfortunately, this is a necessary thing for them,’ he said.’ (Full story)
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 09:36:01 +0100
From: Joe McNally (spam-protected)
To: Yahoogroups Forteana (spam-protected)
Subject: Afghanistan - no end to the horror in sight
http://www.irishnews.com/access/daily/current.asp?SID=431306
Out with the Taliban, in with the craic
THE first public house in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban has opened - and it’s Irish.
In Taliban times, a fully stocked Irish pub serving whiskey and cold beer in the heart of the ultra-Islamic country’s capital would have been unimaginable.
It still is for many Afghans, but the Kabul night-spot has been a life-saver for many expatriates working in the city.
The Irish Club opened on a secluded side street in the centre of Kabul last month - on St Patrick’s Day.
There is no sign, and not even a number on the door, but in a country where terrorists are still a real threat, that is exactly the way the Irish owner Sean Martin McQuade wants it.
“We wanted to keep a low profile, so we didn’t advertise whatsoever,” he said.
“But people know where to find us. News travels fast by word of mouth.”
In a mock Tudor-style house behind the blank outer wall, immaculate Afghan waiters in black trousers, white shirts and black bow ties serve up beer for £1.25 and cocktails for £1.90.
Customers - mostly aid workers, diplomats and journalists - crowd around a wooden bar topped off with green marble imported from Ireland.
Afghan carpets are strewn about the floor. Posters for Guinness are tacked all over the walls. Small lanterns - handy during the sporadic power cuts - are placed on every table.
“We are the first people to stick our necks out and say this can be a cosmopolitan city,” Mr McQuade, who has worked as an engineer in Afghanistan for the last 11 years, said.
He insisted that he had gone out of his way not to offend anyone and had sought the approval of a neighbourhood mullah to open the bar. In return, he promised to help rebuild the pot-holed road in front of the club and to help relocate an adjacent school to a bigger, better site.
The bar is officially licensed by the state to sell alcohol - but only to foreigners. An Afghan bouncer keeps locals out, checking IDs and making sure patrons sign in.
There are Afghan staff, of course, but they have all been given Irish names - Kevin, Jimmy, Michael, George - “to protect them from possible retaliation”.
The Taliban may no longer be in power, but Muslim conservatives continue to hold sway in Afghanistan.
Fazel Ahmed Manawi, the deputy supreme court justice, said any Muslims found drinking at the Irish Club will be punished.
“We have got a lot of foreigners living in our country and unfortunately, this is a necessary thing for them,” he said.
« Back – Joe McNally :: Flaneur at Large :: http://www.flaneur.org.uk
Tags: centre, club, country, day, fall, house, irish, side, street, taliban
(Untitled)
Club patron sues ‘reckless’ stripper:
Bonnett was in the New Westminster club on Nov. 29, 2000 when a female dancer swung around a pole and kicked him, fracturing his nose, according to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in British Columbia Supreme Court.
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:23:14 -0000
From: (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: Over enthusiastic stripper causes head injury
Club Patron Sues ‘Reckless’ Stripper
Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Nov. 29) - A Canadian man has sued a Vancouver-area strip club, claiming he was injured by a “reckless” exotic dancer who kicked him in the head.
Greg Bonnett is seeking unspecified damages from the Barnet Motor Inn, claiming it was negligent in not posting prominent signs warning the public of the risk of sitting too close to the stage.
Bonnett was in the New Westminster club on Nov. 29, 2000 when a female dancer swung around a pole and kicked him, fracturing his nose, according to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in British Columbia Supreme Court.
The Coquitlam man’s lawsuit also seeks damages from the dancer, identified only as “Jane Doe,” for allegedly “dancing in a negligent and reckless manner.”
Reuters 10:51 11-29-01
Tags: club, dancer, lawsuit, man, nov, patron, pole, reuters, stripper, tuesday
