We were pottering around the countryside in our Camry and I teased Mrs Ed about the plate of porridge sensation when you press on the accelerator. She decided she was going to show me what it could do, and of course, standing on a pedal linked to a 2.2 liter fuel injection engine, the car took off and we had a lot of fun squealing around hairpins.

It reminded us of a couple of car myths and we wondered if they was any truth in them. Any ideas?

Myth one

If you get in a new car and beat the engine to death from day one, it will be able to handle being thrashed all its natural life. If you always potter around in a car, it will always be slower than its thrashed brother.

As a younger idiot, I used to thrash my cars and they lasted 140k plus miles. So for me, the myth makes sense, but is this in fact true or complete BS, coincidence?

Myth two

The paintwork of a car kept in a garage at nights will deteriorate faster than the paintwork of a car kept outside.


I had a van that I never washed, and by its 15th year it ended up looking like crap. However, I don't know if I contributed to its demise, or it would have deteriorated regardless of its treatment? (To spruce it up, I rubbed the paintwork down and resprayed it!)

What do you think? Myths or reality?

I wonder why more people don't have an interest in obscure Operating Systems? I would have thought that the average computer head would have delved deeper into OS's than mainstream Windows, Mac and Linux? But apparently not, because if it were a burning topic, I would get more than 2 visitors to this site looking for my priceless insights.

And if it were a hot topic, the fact that I rank no 2 in Google searches for that term would mean something beyond, "I rank number two in Google for something."

I know you are chomping at the bit now, so, discover everything you ever wanted to know about Play Station and OS/2 in my incredible summary!

There are some pushy buggers around on the internet. If webmasters aren't installing viruses and trojans without your knowledge, script kiddies are bombarding you with pop-ups full of viagra and casino news.

Then there are scripts that create pseudo links to other sites in order to create traffic. And if clever scripts fail, there are social engineers, the ones who make you lose your senses and trick/bore/wear you down into clicking on "Yes, download this unknown program" just to make the annoying message box go away. And let's just add porn, woven sneakily into the whole rich tapestry of online ugliness.

Put the whole sorry lot together and you could end up with something unexpected like this on your screen:



I would like to politely ask social engineers at hardcore porno site, IsMyMovie to run along and re-write their code, so it doesn't look like they are forcing me to install a video codec that may or may not kill my computer.

Kill my computer?

Am I being harsh? Maybe it is a terrible misunderstanding and the codec is kosher? OK. Let the reader decide.

For a start, I didn't find their porn site while browsing the internet from a darkened room. I found their link in my Awstats. According to my statistics, they have been sending traffic to my site. Oh really! Show me the link! There is none. I am sure Google would love to know they have been duped as well!

And then, there's the impossible loop they set up, trying to force me to agree to download their VideoAccessCodec.

Luckily on a Mac, I am sort of immune to PC viruses, so after 3 dances through their loop, rather than close the browser, I pressed OK.

As an unsocial person, it killed me to do as they wanted, but I wasn't too suicidal, because I knew my browser and / or operating system would end the stupidity. I clicked Yes, and as expected, the inbuilt security in the browser warned me that I was being forced to download an application. Did I want to really really proceed?



I didn't feel predisposed to loading an exe file on my computer and I canceled.

Watch out

After Googling, I came up with a series of warnings about the VideoAccessCodec trojan virus bad boy. It ain't good. Had I been on a PC and in a hurry to view some porn, I could have been in trouble.

If you are angling for a new computer for Christmas , perhaps you could seal the deal by saying "Yes" to download unknown programs!

This article was prompted by a TV advert for Pajamagram.

I heard the name, and looked up quickly from what I was doing. I saw a dishy girl in pajamas closing the bedroom door, a happy guy was in the background, propped up in bed.

Two thoughts crossed my mind. The reason the ad initially caught my attention was because I misheard the name of the product. I genuinely thought they were saying vaginagram. That may sound a ridiculous error but it seemed to tie in neatly with the mood of the advert, and my mind was joining weird dots - woman in pajamas, hotel room. Pajamagram, strippagram...

Anyway, this company needs to look at its name and marketing angles, else their site will be inundated by more non-customers like me!

When everybody's favorite happy chappy, Ben Stein, criticised the dubious practices of Goldman Sachs, he stirred a hornet's nest on Wall St. Personally, I think his call against GS is BS - he should have criticised every financial institution except Goldman Sachs!

Double standards

Dead-pan Ben proposed the possibility that GS sold sub-prime securities and also bet massively on those same securities dropping equally massively in value. While every other financial company almost went tits up in the credit crunch debacle, Goldman made huge profits from this tactic.

Some would say fair play to Goldman for betting big and winning big, when their competitors on Wall St wimped out or failed to see the play. I am sure money managers think it is admirable business, but Ben Stein (and I) think it is unethical.

Ethics never got in the way of Wall St and I think Stein tried to weave something blatantly illegal into the mix to try and effect some change. However I think Ben Stein got it wrong going for the jugular when he suggested that GS were running another strategy alongside that double dealing strategy.

The Stein hypothesis says that GS were not only betting against the sub-prime paper that they were selling hand over fist, but one of their senior analysts was systematically spinning a dire story of an impending housing market meltdown. In effect, GS is accused of using its massive and sneaky clout to lay the foundations for a housing crisis. How unethical is that double standard, if true?

The trouble is, I don't think Goldman Sachs needed to tell a senior analyst to spin the end to a housing bubble. Even before these dodgy sub-prime loans came along, housing bubbles have always occurred in over-heated economies. If anything, the analyst could be accused of conducting a sick documentary on the impending implosion in the credit and housing market, but market manipulation? Maybe, but more likely, Stein is shooting the messenger.

As someone with no interest in any financial company except E-trade, where we bank and hold some stocks, I think Ben Stein got the last piece of the conspiracy theory totally wrong, and should have concentrated on roasting every company except GS for falling so badly into the sub prime trap. GS knew that greed would win and sub-prime mismanagement would fuel the housing crisis, they just supplied the fuel! A bit like selling bullets and being accused of murder when someone fires it from a gun!

A sure fire investment

Anyway, if any investors have a spare $25, make a micro-loan to an entrepreneur in a developing country, via Kiva and appear in the graphic below. There is no sub-prime issue and you will get your money back (assuming you think 0.2% risk of non-payment is a fair indicator of a return!)

There is a whole raft of society giving thanks for a product called Chem draw.

Untold numbers of users wonder where they would be without it, such is its power and usefulness. On the other hand, millions of others have no idea where they would be if they had it, because they don't even know what it is.

Some would say that ignorance is bliss, however, I, as a spoil sport, think it is time to reveal all. Chem Draw is:

the industry’s leading application for chemical structure drawing. Sequence Tool, 13C and 1H NMR prediction with peak splitting and highlighting, a TLC plate drawing tool,

Don't waste a moment, just go and order it right now. It could change your life. Then again, it could leave you scratching your head, or as we scientists like to say, rearranging the follicle molecules on your cranium.