WHOOPS! Feedback was momentarily taken in by the website , which promises that “to improve your chances of winning the Irish lottery we have compiled a STATS section based on previous draws”. That prompted reader Terry Devlin to ask whether the Irish Lottery had “discovered some previously unknown aspect of the laws of probability” (21 April).
Craig Lindsay’s pdf-converter software rebuked him with an error message which read: “Warning, You have exceeded the maximum allowable file size of 0 bytes
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Stuart Neilson writes to point out that the site name is registered to one Mark O’Meara, not to the Irish Lottery. That can be found at addresses including lotto.ie – which is, indeed, registered to An Post National Lottery Company, to whom we apologise.
So we tried to work out why O’Meara goes to the trouble and expense of maintaining that unofficial website. We discover that he is also associated with sites such as , and which, like the irishlotto site, offer you the chance to buy tickets online. If you’re in the UK, the minimum of four “Euro millions” tickets will set you back £16 – compared with £8 through the official site.
And if O’Meara wants people to entrust him with their credit card information, he needs to do some work to repair his online reputation. A quick search throws up an that reports on many emails purporting to come from someone of the same name, at the same address in Dublin, Ireland. They offer to help people claim alleged lottery winnings – in one case (at least) asking for an advance fee of more than £500. Oh, yes, and for your proof of identity, such as a picture of your driving licence – see the lotteries scam site at .
The moral seems to be: steer clear of lotteries.
THE UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has given consent for the construction of a giant wind farm between Neath and Aberdare in south Wales. This is about the project on its website: “The developer predicts that it will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of up to 206,000 homes a year.”
Our colleague Fred Pearce wonders if this would be very different to powering 206,000 homes per second. Or per decade.
“Too complicated,” says Microsoft man
THE charity Oxfam sells an all-purpose greetings card, with the message “Never let a computer know you’re in a hurry”.
It has a point. If you have a deadline to meet, you are certain to be delayed by your computer demanding that updates be installed, followed by shutdowns and reboots, with much hard-disc whirring and “are you sure?” questions and error messages along the way.
So it was instructive to hear a talk by Daniel Danker, who heads the BBC’s online TV services, at a recent meeting held in London by the UK’s Digital TV Group. Danker graphically described how he had spent 6 hours over three days on long-distance phone calls to his 67-year-old mother, helping her connect her new TV to the internet.
“What is WEP and what is IP and why does my new TV already need an upgrade?” she wondered when error messages kept appearing on her screen.
“It’s all far too complicated,” Danker concluded.
Then we noticed Danker’s biography. He joined the BBC from Microsoft – the company that pretty much invented Update Hell. Where were you when you were needed on the inside of the tent, Mr Danker?
THE reviews site for UK and Ireland retailer Argos has this to say about the : “Ultra stylish and incredibly versatile, this Philips Airfryer features patented Rapid Air technology that enables you to make tasty chips with less than 80 per cent fat, it’s a cooking gem!”
Perry Bebbington is doubtful: “Chips with less than 80 per cent fat? Not sure how that’s an improvement over normal chips fried the traditional way. I don’t know how much fat is in even the greasiest traditional deep fried chip, but I am certain it is a lot less than 80 per cent.”
Frankenstein in middle England
READER Barry Horne reports family consternation over a headline in local newspaper The Bucks Herald. “Plans to breathe new life into town cemetery,” it said, inspiring the inevitable jokes about Doctor Frankenstein being alive and well and continuing his experiments in Aylesbury, the town in question.
FINALLY, tells us: “CoreSinging gets directly to the heart and soul of singing. This revolutionary approach combines aspects of Eastern traditions and concepts, Western traditions, quantum mechanics and years of teaching experience.”
“If I sign up,” Norman Fitt asks, “will I be able to sing in two places at once?”