Last year’s much-fêted Top of the Pops revamp seems to have been a disaster as the programme is about to move from BBC1 to BBC2 for the first time in its 40-year history. I don’t think it’s been the same since it moved from Thursdays to Fridays. Thursday evening watching Tomorrow’s World and Top of… Continue reading TOTP Sidelined
Month: November 2004
BBC Real Audio
The BBC makes a lot of its output available as Real Audio streams on its web site, both as a programme is being broadcast and also for (usually) a week later. The BBC techs have done a lot of work to make this all nice and seamless. There’s a BBC Radio Player web application that… Continue reading BBC Real Audio
Pogues
Fifteen years ago I certainly wouldn’t have taken bets on Shane MacGowan still being alive now. But he is and he’s being interviewed by the Guardian about the forthcoming Pogues revival. The classic Pogues line-up (yes, including Cait O’Riordan) are back together for the first time in almost twenty years and they’re playing gigs next… Continue reading Pogues
Condoms
This morning there were women standing outside Tottenham Court Road tube station thrusting free condoms into the hands of anyone who walked past them. Is it national safe sex day or something like that?
Merry Air Raid
The Oxford St christmas lights this year look like klieg lights. It makes me think that we’re expecting an air raid. And air raids are obviously a central part of the traditional British christmas. All it needs is a Zeppelin or a V2 flying overhead to complete the illusion. Oh, and the gantries that the… Continue reading Merry Air Raid
Morons on the Underground
To the moron who sat beside me on the Northern Line between Waterloo and Clapham at about 6pm yesterday, Yes, the tube in the rush hour is overcrowded. Most of us just accept that and make the best of it. The fact that you wear a nice pinstripe suit does not make you more important… Continue reading Morons on the Underground
IE Usage Falls
Web analysis company OneStat.com have published a report showing that Internet Explorer’s usage share has dropped to under 90%. The combined usage of all Mozilla-based browsers (which includes Firefox) is at 7.35%. Probably the most important point in the report is that IE usage has fallen by 5% since May. Update: The BBC are also… Continue reading IE Usage Falls
Spooks
There should be a law against people writing drama about subjects they know nothing about. Last night’s Spooks was a good example. It was all about a computer “hacker” who was holding the British Government to ransom. His plan went like this. Although email has been around for decades, it didn’t really take off until… Continue reading Spooks
Stupid iGeeks
I admit I never got on well with Apple computers. I have a Powerbook but as far as I’m concerned it’s the computer of last resort[1]. I just can’t get on with the user interface in OSX and I’m far happier working on a PC running Linux and Gnome. But I do know a lot… Continue reading Stupid iGeeks
IE vs Firefox (again)
Over the weekend I did some work on the stylesheet for my main site. I cleaned it up a lot and made it look far simpler. Of course, as I was making the changes, I was testing them on Firefox. IE doesn’t work on Linux so I couldn’t test them on that without using someone… Continue reading IE vs Firefox (again)