Be Excellent To Each Other

This site was set up to show people the dangers of sharing too much information on the Internet, by simply looking through their tweets and seeing when they weren't at home, then sticking a pin in a map to show where the empty house was.

It does make me wonder if I'm sharing far too much of my life on the Internet, to be honest.
For example, right now, several people know (and can find out) my exact location, as my phone is telling them. This isn't publicly available data (to my knowledge) but it's not exactly secret either.

I am typing this from your house.

Nice curtains.

Just this morning I declined to put exact details of my Japan trip on Facebook, even though it's friends-only, for much the same reasons. Especially as my address is easily gleanable from my domain records.

Bingo. This is what I've been trying to point out for a long while now. You might trust the regulars not to kidnap you, chop you into bits and feed you to their pet pig, but what about the weirdo lurkers? Haven't we already had trouble with one nut case?

Although I must stress that the day I was sitting in that cafe off the Strand, I would have bought lunch for anyone who had found me.

If I find you now will you still buy me lunch?

I'm not sure the fear over burglars is that well-founded is it? I dunno, perhaps if you're super-rich and a gentleman thief is targeting your priceless art collection but I can't see many smackheads having their shit sufficiently together to carry out some kind of electronic reccy.

It marks me that MrsA will leave her laptop on the coffee table and go out, leaving the curtains open.

It's partly why I keep all the curtains closed in my house. The last thing I want is for someone to nick all the good stuff and leave me with my GX4000 and C64GS.

I think the valid concern is more about nut-jobs, really.

The missus might be home. We've got an alarm, insurance and precious few irreplaceable items.

In terms of risky things I do, it's probably not that high up on the list.

No, it's not specifically about burglars, more about making people realise what they're doing might not be entirely sensible.

That and the sunlight would fade your Razzle collection.



Speaking of which have I ever told the story on here of the Who fan who bought 2 copies of every VHS release? 1 for watching and putting on display and 1 to be locked in a closed cupboard in a room with drawn curtains.

Bet he's pissed now the VHS versions are worthless.


BTW GX4000's and games now fetch decent sums.

Yup. I used to have quite a few games but they all sold and now replacing them would cost a fortune. They don't turn up on Ebay anything like as often as they used to either.



Hmm.. I really should update the addresses on mine.

No but I'll tie you up, stick you in my boot and dump you in Southampton town centre wearing a Portsmouth kit and a big sign saying "Matt Le Tissier is gay".

I quite agree, but one supposes that the effort involved to steal an identity/plan a hit/clone a car is greater than conventional methods. Mind you, aggressive protest groups probably have that data, anyway.

Binned mine [sobs]

Although all the downloadable copies of Switchblade, Navy Seals and Pang online are direct copies of my own carts. So they kind of live on.

I read an article yesterday that said that insurance companies will no longer pay out if you do things like that and get burgled.

How would they know?

Was it in the DM?

Well I guess they can simply look for you on facebook/myspace or whatever and see.

The article was on Yahoo ! yesterday and was something to do with insurance companies coming up with new and improved ways to fuck you out of your payments.

http://www.insurancedaily.co.uk/2010/02 ... -premiums/

Found that. I shall keep searching.

Was apparently post 400,000 in General Discussion.

Even if I were to advertise my location at all times on Facebook, Foursquare, Latitude, Gowalla, and Twitter, I'm still not convinced it would add up to as much of a green light to burglers as my front room curtains being unmoving and open for an entire week.

I'm waiting till you have an iPad anyway.

Little do they know you're not tall enough to close them and you never wear clothes around the house.

Everybody with half a brain uses pseudonyms and/or private pages though.

Nah - you've had lots of people who've secretly broken into your place , the problem is your vicious hell dogs have disposed of them before you get home

It's true. She only sleeps like that after feasting on human entrails still warm from the hunt.

Just to veer wildly off topic for a brief second. If dogs are vicious killers by nature, how come the foxes that I see every other night/morning don't attack me? (See Twitter for my occasional drunken mockery of them) I get up close & startle them sometimes, but they still run off instead of jumping on me & tearing my throat out.

They're biding their time, lulling you into a sense of false security until one day, when you least expect it, they'll strike, tearing you asunder with their razor-like fangs, howling in a blood-fuelled frenzy of primal savagery.

Foxes are ginger, and so cowardly runts by nature.

Because
a) They are not pack hunters. The main difference being that taking down something larger than you is only really possible (and needed - more mouths to feed) with packs.
b) Historically, they're smaller than Dogs, and so have the instincts of something smaller than dogs

I prefer my theory.

I prefer Squirt's

Mine needed the words "ravened" or "ravening" in it, I've just realised. No description of a brutal wild animal-caused death is complete without them.

Cheers*
*Not Dave though, he cheated & used facts.

Mine has the benefit of being true, of course.

Why else would the teeny tiny red squirrels be dying out due to the prevalence of their normal sized grey cousins, eh?

The innate inferiority of the gingwah.

Light hearted fix. Yes I hear what you are saying there. Any one with some common sense uses a fake name. I have a fake name on Facebook now and my real name in a picture so when I add people they realise. But search for my real name? you won't find me. (my Twitter name is bogus too).

However, whilst I and most of Beex would agree that you would use your brains and mask your identity at least a wee bit, you would be amazed at the downright retardedness of most of the internet world.

As an example yesterday on Facebook my step mother in law (long story) from the USA posted a line from the song Rockstar by Nickelback. We used to sing it together when drunk. So I posted the next line about having a drug dealer on speed dial. As a comment I got this from some silly vapid bitch I went to school with. I mean fuck where's the common sense in this? stupid cow.

(Oh, and fucking LOOL at Lacesensor's reply)

"What do you mean, 'now'?"

I'll tell you what does it for them, though - leaving your gate open. It's a red rag to any opportunistic burglar, even if your doors/windows are locked shut.

I keep reading this thread as "Please nob me"

I'm sorry Grim..., but no thanks.

Handily, a GX4000 and three games turned up on Ebay today for £20. Figured I might as well.

Which games? Pang, Switchblade and Navy Seals are the standout titles. Burnin' Rubber comes free and is a great little racer for a giveaway.

Ditch the joypads and use some Megadrive pads. The Amstrad pads are hateful.

Make sure you plug it into your TV using SCART. The GX4000 is unique in that it has a standard SCART socket on the back proving that Amstrad could actually get something to do with ports/sockets right for a change.

Robocop and World of Sport. Just noticed that the title said 3 games but there's only 2.. oh well.

World of Sport is not great. It's like a cut down California Games with only 4 events. The cliff driving and surfing are fun and the graphics are OK, but it's worth no more than 500 Bananas.

Robocop 2 looks nice but is a real rock hard platformer. It's a test of memory and timing. 690 Bananas or thereabouts.

Really surprised you didn't get Burnin' Rubber. If you opt to buy a copy, ensure you get the version that is Burnin' Rubber on its own as there is another version knocking around that has CPC BASIC on it and it won't work on the console. It is worth having.

Other than the 3 titles I mentioned, sadly the consoles catalogue is mainly direct CPC ports with no enhancement rather poor quality games quickly written ready for Christmas. Pro Tennis Tour is worth a look and I hear Mystical is OK. Batman and Barbarian 2 aren't worth having as they are just direct ports!

would it not be as easy to wander round my estate and notice my car is not on my drive.

Because you look like them?

So.. did anyone fall for Grim...'s ruse?

Posting this thread and then the one about meeting Curiosity and then going to rob Grim... only to find him armed with a baseball bat behind his front door.

FredHale:

Who wants to go on the ghost-train?
1:25pm

Having a lovely walk on the front. Hope I don't bump into the old gang there, haha!
12:32am

Hello I'm Kolly Kibber, find me for £5! Lol.
11:30am

OMG! Back in Brighton!
8:54am

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