The Sky One ‘science’ series, Brainiac, has returned for a second series. Presented by Richard ‘used to be on Top Gear’ Hammond and Jon ‘famous geek from Big Brother’ Tickle, it takes a rather anarchic, but educational look a popular science. Last night’s programme addressed such important things as what happens to soap when you… (read more)

According to this story, the BBC Weather Centre is to make use of 3D gaming technology to produce more interesting and informative weather forecasts. The article gives details of the specification of the systems that they plan to use for generating these images and forecasts. The specifications look suspiciously like the “recommended specs” for Doom… (read more)

Seems I have a couple of GMail invites to give out. I’ve been testing Google‘s web-based email service GMail and they are looking for more beta testers. Don’t know if it’s reliable enough for every-day use yet or not, ‘cos I haven’t really used it that much. So, if you’d like to try out and… (read more)

Sounds like NatWest have finally got their act together regarding online security etc. – proper support of alternative browsers too, as I mentioned recently. Recently found this page discussing all the things you should do to keep your PC and personal information safe and secure, both online and offline. Quite thorough and well-written without being… (read more)

Windows XP Starter Edition: Microsoft’s attempt to stop the widespread piracy of the full version of Windows XP. The ‘Lite’ version will only be available to users in Asia and is essentially a stripped-down edition of the full OS at a much reduced price. One of the limitations is that you can only run three… (read more)

Work’s external network connection is rubbish. Even when it works properly. Which it isn’t. Since Thursday last week, every afternoon our connectivity gets shaky until well into the evening. Emails get delayed, web connections time out and fail etc. It is very annoying. People at HQ have suggested that ‘rogue traffic’ on the network may… (read more)

After a trip to my parents at the weekend, the world now has two more Mozilla Firefox users, hurrah. Although the primary reason for the installation was to avoid the use of the security-impaired Internet Explorer, the popup-blocking feature sounds like it will be popular. Will have to wait and see whether the tabbed-browsing is… (read more)

Found a couple of interesting/amusing web pages this week: A good page talking about how to switch over to Mozilla Firefox from Internet Explorer – Switch to Firefox; A spoof of the “Preparing for emergencies” web site – from HM Department of Vague Paranoia

Not a software virus, but a real one (i.e. a wetware, bioware virus). Have been knocked out since Wednesday, possibly now recovering, but this one was nasty … going in approximately eight hour cycles of shivering, overheating, sweating, feeling OK, shivering, overheating etc. Not nice 🙁

Yesterday evening was one of those occasions when I wish I’d had a camera with me … getting home from work through a fairly big thunderstorm, by bike, was interesting. In the Chinese sense. The storm had been building up since about 15:00, and by 17:00 was seriously coming down. I kind-of needed to get… (read more)