Busted: CDWow Hit With €61M Fine, Future In Doubt!

THE FUTURE of online retailer CDWow is now in doubt after it has been ordered to pay the British and Irish pop industry a record €61 million in damages (£41 million stg). A High Court judge today found in favour of the British music industry against CDWow for alleged illegal imports of CDs and DVDs into the UK from Asia. They would then sell these imports at a lower price than standard retail outlets.

It looks as if the lads at CDWow were using this technique to pass on savings to online consumers and make a tidy profit in the process. They would then sell these imports at a lower price than standard retail outlets. Certainly CDWow has been a hugely popular online site here in Ireland, although the parent site is actually a Hong Kong based operation. They were able to offer savings of up to 45% compared to retail outlets in some instances. Albums which had an official list price of around £13 could be found for as little as £6.99 on the company’s website.

It remains to be seen if they can survive the imposition of such a huge fine on their operation, but if you have any orders pending with them folks, I’d be checking your accounts pretty quickly if I were you.

Rather quickly I’d suggest.

Another Five Years… The Sheep Have Spoken

AS A COLLEAGUE of mine has been saying all day today “The people have spoken“, and I suppose he is right. The people of Ireland turned out in droves last Thursday to vote and they made it clear that they were shit scared of change. Any change. What a great sight it was to see democracy in action with such a large turnout at the polling stations… but then what a tragedy to see the resulting numbers crawl in over the weekend.

The gangsta party are back in business, and back in the Dail for another five years.

Another five years of corruption, greed, dodgy property deals and backhanders. Just look at the list of corruption charges levelled against these gangsta party members since 2002. Amazing isn’t it? And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Yet they got re-elected. Hell, Ireland even made it on to the Transparency International Global Corruption Report in 2005, and have remained there as far as I know. And let’s not forget the seemingly endless list of insane property deals and backhanders. Is there any green space left in this country not already on a planning application for some apartments or commercial building? Someone is getting rich, but it ain’t the PAYE workers.

Another five years of chronic Health Services. It’s more dangerous now to go to a hospital than it is to stay at home. There aren’t enough beds so you are just as likely to die in a corridor waiting for one to come free. It’s cheaper to outsource the service and bring in talent from abroad, so half the doctors and nurses don’t speak English particularly well and haven’t the time to see you anyway. It’s times like this sign language comes in handy, like pointing to your broken leg or fractured pelvis and making sounds of an animal in pain; that usually works. The reorganisation of the health boards into a Health Services Executive has been a farce and is more expensive than the original model. It’s so bad that if it were an animal you would have it put down, to put it out of its pain.

Another five years of traffic jams, chaos on the roads, retarded thinking and operation free fuckflow. Read more

30 Years On… The Legend That Is “Star Wars” Is Celebrated

UNLESS YOU WERE born in the last few minutes, you already know what “Star Wars” is, and why it was so pivotal in the movie business. Actually – if you were born in the last few minutes you must be some sort of genius, so what the hell are you doing reading this? Go compose an opera or something useful.

For the rest of us however, Star Wars represents the most incredible vision and life long passion of a certain George Lucas. Personally I grew up with the original 3 movies (hated the re-worked versions!) and thought the new ones were ok, but not as good… but then that’s probably nostalgia talking. The point is that Star Wars is 30 years old.

30 years. That’s just hard to swallow sometimes. Damn that snuck up on me.

Anyway, Wired are running an excellent article entitled ‘Star Wars Rewired’ which you should go check out if you have any interest in the subject matter at all. It’s got articles dealing with the aftermath of making such a monster success on George Lucas, a clever diatribe on how Star Wars changed everything, articles on merchandising, Star Wars games, behind the scenes accounts; hell they’ve even got a piece on the cult status Carrie Fisher achieved in that metal bikini for fucks sake.

It’s a great read and worthy of some frivolous attention, so what are you waiting on? Get un-busy and go waste some quality time down memory lane with Han Solo, Leia, a nerf herder, some daft robots, Obi-Wan Kenobi, jawas, behind the scenes tit bits… you get the idea. 

Sure what else is the internet for if not diversions like this?

Barbarella, Heroes & Babylon 5 News For Fanboys!!

FANBOYS… COMMENCE DROOLING, for one of the whackiest cult movies of all time – Barbarella – has just got the green light to be remade by none other than Robert Rodriguez of From Dusk ‘Till Dawn, Desperado, El Mariachi, Sin City and Grindhouse fame.

I can’t even begin to imagine what a modern version of such a cult classic would look like, but given this directors track record that doesn’t surprise me either. I guess the only certainty is that it will be a hell of an original interpretation, one way or another!

For anyone who doesn’t know what a legend Barbarella is… well all you really need to know is that it starred Jane Fonda at the height of her astounding beauty in 1968, involved a zero gravity undressing scene as the opening credits rolled, contained a plot which consisted of  Fonda in (and out) of a litany of weird and skimpy/sexy costumes on a mission to bring ‘love’ to the galaxy.

Yes – I know you can almost taste the drugs from that description alone can’t you? Just roll with it. After all – it was the sixties. I’m not sure anyone knew what the hell they were doing when they made this film, but it still made it to cult status!

And it wasn’t even a porn movie. Well, not really.

And the good news doesn’t stop there… Read more

Chinese Bloggers & Gamers Rejoice, But What Is Really Going On?

I HAVE A FASCINATION with China, and in particular how as a nation they are trying to cope with the massive slide towards western products, cultures and potentially democracy in the long run. There are many challenges facing them, but high up on that list is the Internet and what it represents to the Chinese authorities.

To what do I refer? Well, freedom of course. The Internet poses the greatest threat to the authorities because of the potential it holds for individual freedom, in a country still dominated by communist governance and policies… but this won’t last forever either.

I’ve written previously about some of the whacky Chinese attempts to control the Internet (The Great Firewall Of China) and even some strange treatments for online gaming addiction (Electro-Shock Therapy, Virtual Penalties etc.) but a key principal in this strategy to “purify” and control the Internet has been the need to adopt a real world verification system for all online activities. In simple terms – the Chinese authorities wanted to know exactly who was online. They intended to achieve this by forcing all users who wished to use the Internet to have to register their real names and details in order to get access.

Today however, bloggers and gamers in China have cause to celebrate because changes are afoot which may see the Chinese authorities abandoning their plans… or are they? What is really going on here? Read more

Best Of… A Funny Collection Of Possible Adverts

I FOUND THESE in my inbox today (thanks MaryMac!) and just thought there were hillarious, so I’ve decided to republish them here on the site for posterity.

Basically it’s a collection of funny adverts (or in some cases potential adverts) which I suspect will make you laugh. Hope you enjoy ‘em.

First up is the wonderful Pammy, in what I suspect could very possibly be the best Google advert of all time.

Look closely now

Next up we have a really dodgy hairdo… but it would take a brave soul to tell him that! Actually – anyone else notice the similarity between Pammy’s hair and the Lion? Hmmm….

There’s more where these came from too.

If you’re interested in Best Rugby World Cup, Best T-Shirt, Best Jeans or Best Fridge Magnet style humour, then click on the link and enjoy… Read more

The Kindness Of Strangers… Alive And Well In Dublin!

WE DECIDED TO DRAG the girls out for a walk this afternoon, up the hill of Howth and then down to the harbour for some seafront fresh fish and chips – a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately bad luck decided to come along and try to fuck things up for us, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the sheer kindness of complete strangers today. We live in such a cynical world that sometimes it’s easy to forget it’s the simple things that make a difference, something as simple as a trust between complete strangers.

That wee beastie in the photo was the nearest in complexion that I could find for “Snot“. You see “Snot” is what SusiQ calls her smart car, mostly because of the snot green/black colour scheme (I didn’t have a real photo handy so here’s a showroom version). SusiQ decided to drive today and so we bundled the girls into the back and had a great afternoon in Howth, right up to the point that a complete stranger knocked on the window as we were about to drive home and informed us that we had a flat, rear passanger side.

Completely flat. Out of commission. Buggered.

That’s the exact moment when I discovered that the rear of a smart car contains exactly two things – except for the girls of course. Firstly there is a less than useless triangle thingy for breakdowns and then of course when you lift up the matting to get out the spare wheel you discover…. the engine instead. That’s it. No wheel, no jack… nothing of any use whatsoever. Read more