Monthly archive: April 2006

• [v-hold] v.2.0 | via popbitch: Confessions of Madonna's tour
  Three themed sections; equestrian, Middle East and disco. 'Everybody' performed on roller skates, and 'Live To Tell' on a crucifix. Or so it is rumoured.
  (tags: madonna confessionsonadancefloor tour concert)
• Amazon.co.uk: Jay Aston – Alive and Well
  2003 album from the one in Bucks Fizz who was not Cheryl Baker. With imaginatively-titled tracks such as 'Pigs Are On The Cake' and 'Love, Hate and Gasoline'. Seriously, has anybody heard this?
  (tags: jayaston bucksfizz cherylbaker eurovision aliveandwell musics)
• BBC.co.uk | Never Mind the Full Stops
  A new quiz show hosted by Julian Fellows, celebrating the English language. Begins Thursday 11 May at 10.30pm. Has the potential to be right up my street if it does not take itself too seriously (see: Balderdash and Piffle)
  (tags: english language words tv bbc quiz nevermindthefullstops julianfellows balderdashandpiffle englishness britishness)

A friend recommended I go and see C.R.A.Z.Y., so on Friday night I did. It is the kind of film that is bound to strike all the right notes with me: there are more feelings than CGI, a substantial dose of humour, and… subtitles – because the film is in the most beautifully sung language in the world (yes, sweeter than Italian): Quebec French!

There is a lot of love throughout the film. A man's powerful love for his five sons, and one of his sons' admiration for him, and a need for approval so strong that it makes him live a lie. Gay and straight love, motherly and brotherly love, love of music and substance abuse.

I had grabbed a few lollipops before the movie so I randomly picked up one during the second half of the film. It turned out to tste like some sort of non-identified berry and revealed a chewing-gum under the candy shell.

Now bear with me, I promise this is going somewhere.

I always go for minty-licorice gum (breath-freshening and thus multi-tasking) that is clearly not designed to blow bubbles with. Not the one I had the other day though. Bold and artificial tasting, big baloons bursting on my face while on screen Zac grows up to the sound of Giorgio Moroder's 'From Here To Eternity'. And I was ten again.

All senses tingling, I left the theatre being reminded by Dr B. that the protagonist's story and family was not dissimilar from mine. And that I even looked like the young protagonist when I was six – Barbie dolls and all.

• SketchUp – a simple but powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying your 3D ideas
  Bought last month by Google, and now released with a free version and a more powerful professional paid one.
  (tags: 3d animation application free google graphics illustration model tool)
• Zend Technologies – Beginner Tutorials – Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP & MySQL
  "This tutorial is aimed at intermediate or advanced Web designers looking to make the leap into server-side programming.'
  (tags: mysql php programming webdesign development database)
• Yahoo's free software turns PC into DVR | Tech News on ZDNet
  'After [Yahoo Go for TV] is installed, people plug their computer into their television's video and audio input connections. The computer can then record and play back shows on the TV just like with a standalone DVR.'
  (tags: pc yahoo dvr pvr yahoogofortv tv tivo)
• Da Vinci Code judgment decoded | The Register
  'Disappointingly, the hidden message inserted by a High Court judge into his ruling on the Da Vinci Code copyright trial has already been solved. [It] has been cracked by a London lawyer. It reads:…'
  (tags: davincicode code ruling copyright trial decode danbrown literature)
• YouTube – "STOP THE MADNESS" (1985, 1986) anti-drug music video
  'White House sponsored 1980's music video about drug use', featuring, among other people… Whitney Houston! (mwahaha)
  (tags: drugs youtube video whitneyhouston eighties 80s)

• Yahoo! ZoneTag 2-click-uploads location-tagged photos to Flickr – Engadget Mobile
  'Yahoo! has [...] rolled out a new application for Nokia Series 60 handset owners that allows them to not only 2-click upload their cameraphone photos to Flickr, but actually tag them with general location data for personal reference and providing viewers with context.'
  (tags: flickr gps media portable mobilephone cellphone phone metadata tag)
• Rotator Cuff Injury
  Not exactly in the zeitgeist of t'internet, but that's what's stopped me from going to the gym for almost two weeks. Brilliant sports injury website.
  (tags: sports injury gym rotator shoulder muscles)
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Judge creates own Da Vinci code
  'The judge who presided over the failed Da Vinci Code plagiarism case at London's High Court hid his own secret code in his written judgement [...] with seemingly random italicised letters'.
  (tags: bbc book code fun humor law davincicode danbrown literature)

The people at Yahoo! have done an excellent job in rethinking the Yahoo! Mail Beta UI, with messages opening in tabs, an optional preview pane, drag-and-drop, and all messages in the inbox appearing on a single page. You can even delete messaged by selecting them and pressing the 'delete' key, rather than ticking them and clicking on a 'delete' button. I have not had a chance to check out Windows Live Mail Beta, but I have a feeling it goes in the same direction.

Having said that, I must say that what really got me excited was the possibility of seeing all my RSS feeds alonside my mail, with the added bonus of moving individual articles from feeds into folders. That's a very smart move, but I faced a couple of problems importing feeds (certainly due to it still being in Beta) namely:

• the OPML file that carries the information related to all the feeds in my newsreader could not be imported;
• when manually importing feeds one by one via the Add Contents window – which cheekily recommends one of my all-time favourites (and Yahoo! employee) plasticbag.org – more than half the fifty-odd feeds were not recognised. Entering feeds in My Yahoo! instead is a workaround – unless you get a 'We couldn't find the RSS file you asked for' message, in which case you simply need to go back to the previous page and submit it again – then it works, but folders in Mail show no name, and all articles imported this way get stamped with the time they were imported rather than published, and are presented with the oldest on top. Moreover, these manually imported feeds do not show at all on the My Yahoo! page.

Not the most straight forward of installations, but that's Beta for you.

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time setting this up and will now try and use it, although I am very tempted to have an additional window open and keep reading feeds on Newsgator.

On my personal wishlist then:

• OPML import;
• post author name being displayed (it gets confusing with collective blogs when you don't know who's writing);
• possibility to click through to the individual article on the original website. It only works if there is a post title;
• a link to the homepage of the original website within the feed (rather than right-clicking on the folder to view the URL);
• possibility to organise feeds in subfolders.

• Is the pace of change really such a shock? (plasticbag.org)
  Tom Coates is 'completely bored of this rhetoric of endless insane change at a ludicrous rate, and cannot actually believe that people are taking it seriously [...] this is a fairly reasonable and incremental technology change that anyone involved in it could have seen coming from miles away.'
  (tags: bbc technology tv media)
• tech.memeorandum @ 7:15 AM ET, April 26, 2006
  Links to a broad range of reactions to the BBC's Creative Future announcement on Tuesday.
  (tags: bbc creativefuture media broadcast tv radio internet)
• hackdiary: BBC Programme Catalogue is live
  Matt Biddulph on the BBC Programme Catalogue, with technical details behind the site he has collaborated on.
  (tags: bbc radio tv tagging library bbcprogrammecatalogue)
• Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Private cash should follow the BBC's lead
  '[the BBC's] plan to become a major global media player could be one of the most decisive decisions it has taken for a long time: good for the BBC, good for Britain and good for business in general. But that doesn't mean it will happen.'
  (tags: bbc bbcprogrammecatalogue media internet web)
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Rivals criticise BBC's strategy
  'The government put no independent regulator in place to stop the BBC using its digital roll-out to roll over a whole host of companies' – James MacManus, News International
  (tags: bbc digital radio television)

The BBC Programme Catalogue allows you to search through the last seventy-five years of BBC radio and TV programmes – that's almost one million items.

Tom Loosemore (Project Director, BBC 2.0) rightly praises 'the wonderful BBC archivists [who] had displayed astounding consistency and discipline in keeping their data clean, and their vocabularies controlled'. A structured core data model is obviously an invaluable basis on which to build such a product.

The BBC Programme Catalogue is a prototype, with a simple design and a basic search, but I can already predict it will be highly addictive, in a Google Earth kind of way. How could I not be excited to know that the exact moment I was born, Dr Who was faced with alien poison planted by the Cybermen. Or that had I stayed in to watch Greystoke, the Legend of Tarzan, I would never have met Dr B.?

There are RSS feeds for entries and search results. Searchable subject category clouds. Data that can be re-used non-commercially. Intuitive URLs that are easibly hackable.

This is the direction to take, in a big and bold way. It might feel a bit like your Auntie putting on hip threads in an effort to look younger and keep up with the times but man does she look hot!

• (New, just out) 'Rocky', re-enacted by bunnies in 30 seconds
  "…the classic underdog story of Rocky, re-enacted by bunnies in 30 seconds" (with hilarious fish and turtles performing the theme tune at the end).
  (tags: bunnies parody rocky movie animation funny flash)
• Google Maps Mania: Big News: Google Maps street maps for ALL of Europe!
  'Not only are street level maps now available (in addition to the satellite maps available previously) but so are driving directions!'
  (tags: google maps Europe googlemaps geography)
• MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | BBC unveils radical revamp of website
  'The BBC today unveiled radical plans to rebuild its website around user-generated content, including blogs and home videos'
  (tags: flickr social technology tv web BBC Web2.0 Internet)
• :: arjanwrites music blog ::: Free Download: Debbie Harry "Dirty Deep"
  'Blondie's frontwoman Debbie Harry is making a return to the spotlight this summer with a new greatest hits album, a tour together with The New Cars and a little rhyme about Lil' Kim.'
  (tags: debbieharry blondie mp3 dirtydeep rap)

I have already mentioned in a previous post how there was hardly any coverage at all in the Berlusconi-controlled Italian press of his 'possible trial on new corruption charges in a case also involving his former British lawyer and financial adviser, David Mills' (British minister Tessa Jowell's husband).

I had a couple of Italian friends over and mentioned the affair to them, pointing out that here in the UK there were calls for Jowell's resignation and she narrowly held on to her position because of openly voiced support by Tony Blair (and a cunningly well-timed announcement of her separation from husband Mills).

My friends in Italy had not heard a thing – which is quite extraordinary, considering that one of them is very politically aware, and is always on the lookout for juicy 'Berlustories' to send me.

• Steelpixel offers lifetime hosting for a one-time fee
  For a limited time, Steelpixel offers lifetime hosting, for a USD150 or USD400 one-time fee. No limits on the number of MySQL databases or email addresses.
  (tags: business hosting webhosting)
• Design View : Andy Rutledge – White House Redux
  A hypothetical and very professional redesign of the current US White House website.
  (tags: bush css design layout politics webdesign)
• Amazon.co.uk: Garlic Card – Purees Garlic Quickly & Easily – White: Kitchen & Home
  Alternatively, you could rub garlic cloves on the raised printed bits of an old credit card.
  (tags: kitchen cooking utensils garlic garlicpress)
• A Simple CSS Image preloading technique
  'All we need to do is designate a CSS style with multiple background-images. As your browser reads the style, it will load each image you designate in succession, thus pre-loading your images.'
  (tags: css design graphics howto image tips tutorial webdesign)
• Firefox Flicks: Community generated Firefox ads submitted to the Flicks project
  I only watched a handful of the top-rated ones, and while they are amazing as user-submitted content, they mostly come across to me as too smug. I use and love Firefox, but it is not *the* only viable solution for better browsing.
  (tags: advert firefox fun marketing video community)
• BBC polls users on online adverts
  Online BBC survey to people outside the UK: should there be advertising on the international versions of its homepage and News website?
  (tags: advertising bbc online poll)
• Grandstand axed in BBC facelift
  The BBC announced it will focus 'on fewer programmes and picking out landmark shows [...] available in more ways – on mobiles and the internet as well as TV and radio'
  (tags: bbc mobile internet tv radio grandstand)

• JoeSchmidt.com: Gadget of the week: The Baker's Edge Baking Pan
  Baking pan with extra internal "walls". Looks like a maze, so that every brownie can be a corner brownie (the best, apparently). Thirty-six dollars from amazon.com.
  (tags: kitchen cooking brownies baking pan)
• Torchwood House
  If I was to get married, this is exactly the location I'd choose. Of course, I'd have to drench every surface in mistletoe oil first ;-)
  (tags: badwolf bbc brand doctorwho drwho tv)

I got to spend some time with a couple of friends visiting from Italy and their daughter, who is almost four years old.

After being very shy for half an hour last night, she decided she likes me and Dr B., and for once did not want to be picked up (well, I would not walk either, if I had two doting parents ready to carry me) but insisted in walking holding our hands instead.

Every now and then, we said 'One, two, three!' and lifted her up for a few steps. We pretended to bump against a tree and she started giggling. I looked at her and could not stop giggling either. People looked at us and giggled.

Today I showed up alone and she asked where Dr B. was. I said that he had to stay at home because a big naughty financial database threatened not to behave nicely (he's on support for work). She looked puzzled. Her dad, an IT consultant himself, grinned.

Kids are great. You get to behave like one and get away with it for once. I built robots with popcorn chicken boxes, spoons and the claws of the useless toy that came with the meal. Her eyes sparkled with admiration at such craft, then replaced the makeshift hair with a napkin and called her robot Rapunzel.

Next time I'll bring my dolls.

• BrainFuel | Top 10 Photoshop Tips and Techniques from BrainFuel
  I am familiar with most but will soon start pressing either ] or [ to adjust the brush size by 10 units.
  (tags: photoshop tutorial tips brush howto)
• Mini Pixel Icons
  Over 320 free mini pixel icons, 14x14px with transparent background, specially designed for header or side navigation buttons. Fee to use (personal or commerical). If you intend to use more than 10 icons you must give a link back to www.ndesign-studio.com
  (tags: design free graphics interface picture pixel)
• Food For Fitness
  Unusual weight control tips eg. 'Pinch an Ear to Stop a Craving' (the tragus – that little bud of cartilage directly above each ear canal – is the acupuncture spot that controls hunger)
  (tags: food fitness weight craving acupuncture tragus ear)
• Dynamic Drive: .htaccess password generator
  A very handy online tool to generate the .htaccess and .htpasswd files you need to password-protect a folder or individual files within it.
  (tags: code encryption howto htaccess password protect web)

• Secunia – Internet Explorer Address Bar Spoofing Vulnerability Test
  A one-click test to check if your browser is vulnerable to the latest generation of phishing attacks that spoof the content of the address bar.
  (tags: browser computer explorer ie microsoft scam security test vulnerability web)
• feed and rss protocols format
  An explanation for the 'feed:http://…' link format that gave me some trouble this morning. It is supposed to launch your RSS reader, as 'mailto:…" opens your default mail client.
  (tags: feed web rss xml)
• The Observer | Travel | The hot topic: Ryanair's new rules cause queues and confusion
  In a nutshell: 2 pound 50 per checked item of luggage, up to 5 items per person for a total of 20 kilos, if paid upon reservation. 5 pounds per item if at check-in. Allowance cannot be shared with fellow passengers.
  (tags: ryanair airline travel luggage flying)

• A List Apart: Articles: Night of the Image Map
  Traditional image maps don't work well with text-only browsers. Here is an easy replacement technique that uses only standards-based XHTML and CSS.
  (tags: css design html image tutorial xhtml imagemap web)
• A List Apart: Articles: A More Accessible Map
  A way to display text-based data on a geographical map, keeping it accessible, useful and visually attractive, using an accessible CSS-based map in which the underlying map data is separated from the visual layout.
  (tags: map css accessibility design web)

• Free download that lets you play DivX and Xvid on your Xbox 360
  We played around with Windows Media Centre Edition in order to stream video through Dr B's Xbox 360 and were frustrated by it only playing WMV. This is an improvement – if you have a powerful enough machine to encode on the fly. Also, you must have a 16:9
  (tags: video media streaming xbox)

Last night I walked out of a play (well, we 'forgot' to return to our seats after the first interval) for the first time ever. And it was not even half bad.

I actually feel a bit ashamed; I realise that my attention span is now attuned to a maximum of forty minutes (the average 'Lost' or 'Desperate Housewives' episode with all the ads and credits edited out). Anything longer than that has to be packed with pyrotechnics to sustain my interest. Or full frontal male nudity.

'Embers' is based on a very simple plot, and there is no twist. All introspective caracter development, slowly and skillfully unraveling through the dark, dusty interior of an end-of-the-Austrian-Empire palace. It apparently was a very innovative book (for the time) that transposes badly to theatre.

I would say that it is a good, traditional production, perhaps a bit outdated. Professionally pieced together with strong, masterful performances. Sorry to have walked out of you, Mr Irons.

Green Wing rocks because of dialogue like this (Staff liaison officer Sue White, when asked to bring paediatrician Angela Hunter's eight-week notice period down to under three hours):

'Do I look like a mug?

Have I got a handle? Am I made of china? Am I kept in a cupboard or on a small wooden tree?

Would you like to put your lips on my rim?

You may answer that question, the others were rhetorical.'

• Multiculturalism UK: ORIGINATION INSITE from Channel 4: Build your own website
  England's multiculturalism comes from the many diverse cultures that live here. ORIGINATION INSITE offers you the chance to build a website about these different stories and cultures – for FREE!
  (tags: britishness englishness channel4 website free multiculturalism)

I have imported my Outlook events into the just-launched Google Calendar (beta).

There is a known issue with timezone settings: events show later than scheduled (eight hours, in my case).

It can be easily solved by creating an additional calendar within the same account, and re-importing the events, which this time will show with the correct timestamp. But then you cannot delete the first calendar without erasing the whole account. You can instead choose not to display the main calendar.

Apart from this glitch, it's a cute little Ajax-powered Web 2.0 application that might be useful for people who do not have the option of syncing their mobile and desktop devices.