Robert Hampton

From BBC News:

Microsoft’s next version of its browser, Internet Explorer 7, will make it easier for people to keep automatically aware of website updates.

Hm… this sounds familiar.

IE7 will have an orange button on the toolbar which will light up when it detects a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed on a site.

I’m sure there’s already a program available which does the orange button thing.

Users can click on a “plus” button to subscribe to the site’s feed, as they would with a bookmark.

Oh, yes, now I remember: Mozilla Firefox does this already. And has done for… well, ever since it was first released.

Nice to see Microsoft ahead of the game, as usual.

One of the joys of daytime TV for me was tuning into Countdown and being thrilled on the odd occasion when I hit the target in the numbers game.

It won’t ever be quite as fun ever again, though: Richard Whiteley has died.

Wow. Mysterious Skin.

I’ve already read the book on which this film is based, so I knew what to expect, but even so, I wasn’t prepared for the sheer intensity of some of the more shocking scenes. But generally, it was fantastic.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a supremely talented actor and would be great in almost any film, but his performance here is unbelievably good. I think I’ve finally forgiven him for appearing in Ten Things I Hate About You.

I know the BBC are thrilled with the success of Doctor Who, and they are, of course, right to be proud of it.

But running trailers for The Christmas Invasion six months in advance might be overdoing things just a little bit.

After a couple of hours playing with the templates, it’s all looking a bit better now, I think. Let me know if anything on the site is seriously broken.

Now is a good time to mention that the URIs of the site feeds have changed and anyone using an RSS reader will have to point it at the new location. Take your pick from RDF, RSS2 or Atom.

It’s slow, it’s buggy and slightly unstable, but a RISC OS port of Firefox is now available.

Inspector Gadget. Woo-oo. Inspector Gadget.
Inspector Gadget. Woo-oo. Inspector Gadget.
Go Gadget go. Go Gadget go.
Inspector Gadget. Woo-oo. Inspector Gadget.

Not quite a seamless changeover to WordPress then. The WP templates are an order of magnitude more frightening to edit than Movable Type’s ever were, which is why the blog is still (more or less) using the default WP style. Expect general site weirdness over the next few days while I get to grips with things.

Your webmaster's inability to set up his Sky box correctly meant he had to watch The Parting of the Ways with “This programme is about to start” plastered across the bottom of his video recording.

That minor quibble aside, it was, as the Ninth Doctor would probably say, “fantastic!”

A couple of wonky episodes aside, the BBC’s revival of Doctor Who has been nothing short of a triumph. I can’t really comment on how it compares to the original, but as a programme in its own right, it has been a real breath of fresh air in an era of cynical, vacuous programming.

It's also proved that science fiction in the UK can still reach beyond the stereotypical “nerd” audience and become a genuine mainstream success on primetime Saturday night telly, and, perhaps even more remarkably, a talking point in the tabloids (until Big Brother started again anyway… sigh).

While waiting for the special edition DVD box set later this year, I’m tempted to order myself a copy of Earthshock off Amazon.

If you ignored my advice last month and still don't watch Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a few days ago you missed one of the funniest things to air on television for quite a while: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Outside the Michael Jackson Trial.

It's amazing what's lurking on my hard disc. I just found a little Java game I was working on for FABland but never finished: Extreme Tennis.

Still not finished, and only vaguely works, but there you go. Obviously it comes from my “slap a copyright notice on everything” phase.

I’m listening to Bob Geldof on Radio 4 complaining about eBay interfering with his attempt to feed his ego… I mean, feed the starving children of Africa.

Your new word for today as used by Mr Geldof: pusillanimous. In case you think Bob Geldof has suddenly gone all posh and highbrow, he also told PM that eBay could shove their offer of a donation up their arse.

I’m not sure that — even speaking figuratively — an auction website has a definable arse that things could be shoved up.

UPDATE: the story I linked to above has been updated. Suffice to say, eBay are no fun.

Anyone who’s been wondering, “how could a city 4X4 driver be any more of a tosser?” — wonder no more:-

Worried that your 4X4 lacks off-road credibility as you mount kerbs and flatten speed bumps in the city?

A firm from Shropshire reckons to have found the answer – spray-on mud.

Instead of heading for the nearest field and churning up beauty spots, drivers can pay a few pounds for a bottle of real, diluted Shropshire mud.

On an impulse I bought one of those photo printers that produces glossy borderless prints of digital camera pictures. The print quality is great, just like a professionally-developed photo without the hassle of having to leave the house and talk to other people.

In short, I was rather chuffed with my new purchase. That was until I checked out the cost of replacement ink cartridges: twenty five quid apiece!

I may have to offset the cost of this purchase by using the printer to produce counterfeit money.