For those who are interested, I got a reply from the BBC:

( Read more... )

I saw this lovely advert while reading the BBC News site while on holiday in France:


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We've been playing some co-op games on the Wii. We still don't seem to have found anything great, but some of it has been okay:

Secret of Mana
This is not as great as I remembered it. The combat system is very frustrating. You walk around and attack with your weapon, but when you hit something there's some hidden to-hit roll going on, so against ( Read more... )

Having finished Matter last week, I found myself somewhat underwhelmed by the ending despite enjoying the rest of the book. Indeed, I'm not sure what books I've read lately that had really good endings. The end doesn't lack action, but really doesn't provide a lot else. There's a conflict that comes to a climax and then bam! it's over. Then four ( Read more... )

Apologies in advance. My laptop imploded and it has been very stressful.

Star Trek, in brief

( spoilers )

myrninerest keeps asking me how I can be so oblivious and/or uninterested in music. I still don't know why I don't seem to have the drive to find music, but I may have observed why I can never remember anything about it. Keirstan watches some music TV channel now and again, and I have discovered that it plays (and she listens to) the same five or six songs ( Read more... )

Not a great day:

• I discovered I've lost my bank card. I haven't used it since Tuesday, I think, and have no idea when it might have gone. I phoned in and cancelled it. They said a replacement might take up to 7 working days to reach me.
  
• Of course, I only discovered that when I went to withdraw cash this evening, so I only have £3 on me.
  
• Also ( Read more... )

Please exit the building in a calm and orderly fashion

My thanks to kest, who pointed out that Livejournal have just laid off a fair chunk of their US staff, including all the developers and designers. I have backed up my journal and comments placed on my posts just in case. I used this Python tool to do it, although I understand that there several ( Read more... )

Back in Dundee, I woke early in the morning to be reminded that our smoke alarm needs a new battery. I knew that before we left, but we didn't have any 9V batteries in the flat at the time, and it only chirped at us very occasionally, and always during the night, so we kept forgetting. I clumsily dismantled it at 6AM and went back to bed, and today ( Read more... )

Turns out my complicated theoretical machine for moving faster than the piece of wood pushing it was orders of magnitude more complicated than required to demonstrate the principle. Try this instead:

Click to view

(Found via Boing Boing.)

I'm pretty confident now that the downwind-faster-than-the-wind thing is possible.