“The Australian magazineSmarthouse quotes the Marketing Manager of Acer Australia as saying 'The decision to delay Vista into the consumer market will have an impact on hardware sales particularly in the Media Centre market. We have been told that Microsoft has bought in programmers from the Xbox team to work on the problems. We have also been told that up to 60 per cent of the code will have some form of re writing or changes made.' Microsoft has since vehemently denied the story.”

PC Pro: News: Microsoft employees call for Ballmer to go

Weird... Overheard in New York seems to have started censoring their RSS feed. Here's the difference between the site and what Bloglines is seeing:

I guess this is related to them putting Yahoo! publisher ads in their feed - like how Fark had to move all their posts to Foobies.com (and, destroy a lot of the fun by not having comment threads for them) at the behest of their advertisers.

<Kheldon> Wanna run some slogans by you guys, let me know what you think and if you like any of them.
<Kheldon> Feeding your massive needs
<Kheldon> Magazine for MMO Gamers
<Kheldon> Your offline link to online worlds
<A\twork> 1) sounds like an ad for a BBW mag
<Kheldon> BBW?
<A\twork> google it >)
<Kheldon> :P
<Kheldon> awh man
<Kheldon> hate you
<Kheldon> nts: don't picture google stuff you don't know

The other day, getting a minicab home from the pub I noted the driver was using a PDA with GPS to guide him (unlike the sainted Black Cab whi perforce must learn The Knowledge). As I was a touch tired and emotional I did not press the driver much for info on it. Today though, I took a cab back from the garage where I'd dropped off the car for a service and MOT and he had the same (or a similar) device. We got to discussing it because, as it turned out, it was programmed from back at the cab's HQ and whoever had done this one seemingly had no idea how to do this. As a result, it spent the entire journey shouting out imperious commands to, effectively, turn the car around and head back to our starting point: “After 100 yards turn left! Turn left again! Turn left again! Turn right!” or “At the roundabout take the fourth exit!” or, on one occasion, “Do a U-turn!”. Unfortunately, the volume can neither be lowered nor can the route be adjusted or cancelled from the cab so we had to suffer through it.

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Uh... wait... what? Google's the US Congress now?

“The complaint accuses Google, as the dominant provider of Web searches, of violating KinderStart's constitutional right to free speech by blocking search engine results showing Web site content and other communications.”

Kinderstart sues Google over lower page ranking - Yahoo! News

So, last night I went to Vertigo 42 with my old friend Siobhan, ostensibly since she owed me a meal for missing my birthday last year - but also to celebrate her impending nuptials to her boyfriend Rob. Vertigo 42 is a champagne bar at the top of Tower 42, previously known as the NatWest Tower and one-time tallest building in London. The view outside is very cool, albeit spoiled somewhat by the glass reflecting some idiot when I was taking a photo.

It's 2.30am and I just got back home. We went to Vertigo 42 for dinner and then on to a pub called The Rose for a lock-in. Thanks to the cab driver who got me home, as I can't see straight any more. Night

Correction: Well, might not have been a lock-in - I forgot pubs can open 24-hours these days.

First off, draw a circle or two. Then come back here. I'll wait...

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Get your Distributed Boing Boing here

A travesty!

“Wallace was worth more because of his moving parts, facial expressions and clothes, meaning it takes longer to make a new one. The pie-making machine from Chicken Run was so complicated it was valued at £100,000. A total of more than £500,000 was received for all the damage.”

Digital Spy - Movies - Wallace and Gromit only worth £6000

Planet Earth The BBC's latest nature series started last week, and I just got around to watching the first ep: Pole to Pole. It's basically vignettes of life on the planet, from top to bottom, with some incredible shots - including some from a new helicopter-mounted steady-cam that can zoom in from 1km away. My favourite though was the slow-motion shots of the Great White hunting seals:

Testing a new desktop/screen saver. Remind me of your city and I'll add it

...in stupidity, we'll do our damndest to go one better.

“The schools standards minister, Jacqui Smith, said in a parliamentary answer that pupils were encouraged to explore different views, theories and beliefs in many different subjects, including science.

"Creationism is one of many differing beliefs which pupils might discuss and consider, perhaps when they learn about another aspect of science: 'ways in which scientific work may be affected by the contexts in which it takes place... and how these contexts may affect whether or not ideas are accepted'," she said.”

EducationGuardian.co.uk | Schools special reports | Exam boards bring creationism into science class

Creationism is “another aspect of science” my codlings...

Update: Maybe not so much.

Coming soon?

“It's not clear from the decay, but you think it may have once been a whisk.”

Wired News:

I will probably come as no surprise for people who've... discussed... things with me that the finale of my Dad's 60^th birthday/retirement party was my brother being thrown out of my parents' bedroom after he entered at 1.30am and tried to continue his ever-so-slightly alcohol-fueled theory that Descartes was wrong when he said “cogito ergo sum”.

“Fuck off” said Dad and pushed him out the room

Fixed the Gravatars - forgot to re-install the plugin when I upgraded it a while back

Apple - Trailers - X-MEN: THE LAST STAND - Trailer

Seems to be taking some elements of the Phoenix saga... but not many.

It's come to a pass when the unelected branch of the government is the one that's managing to protect our freedoms.

“Tony Blair's government was defeated by the House of Lords on Monday over the controversial issue of national identity cards.

The peers voted by a majority of 61 to overturn the government's plan and make the cards voluntary. The bill will now return to the House of Commons for further debate.”

Lords reject ID card bill - Yahoo! News UK

mininova : TV Shows > Other > Jon Stewart and Misc Segments at the Academy Awards/Oscars (2006.TVRip.SoS)

“The bunnies humbly present their 30-second rendition of Brokeback Mountain. Graciously hosted by Starz!”

Angry Alien Productions, Sase and Topsie

Maybe now they'll get their fingers out and upgrade the cable here to be actually interactive, which they promised was “coming soon” two years ago.

“The long-awaited merger between NTL and Telewest, Britain's two largest cable operators, was completed on Friday.”

Digital Spy - Cable - NTL, Telewest complete merger

To the woman reversing her car into a parking spot whilst minding two children and holding a conversation on her mobile phone in Tesco's the other day: concentrate on where your car is going, moron.

Matthew Paul Thomas » Blog Archive » How to tell the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0