The Prisoner's Sonic Shadow Looms Large

 

Read the Wired story about more musical mash-ups based on the The Prisoner

Google Maps UK - now with traffic

Live, and "predictive"; very useful

Us and them. And after all we're only ordinary men....

Richard Wright :: 1943-2008

.....Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.....

Gilmour's fitting tribute to his friend.

Particle Physics...

Particle Physics t-shirt design @ © SplitReason.com

"I am not a number, I am a free man!"

There are stories circulating that shooting starts in August 2008 of a "Prisoner" remake; six hours/six episode mini-series.

Many have waited a long time for such news, including me! Let's hope, if these rumours are true, the remake "does it right". Here's the article from six of one:

6th June, 2008 - SIX OF ONE EXCLUSIVE - The 2009 mini-series of the The Prisoner will feature six one-hour episodes, all written by Bill Gallagher (Clocking Off; Conviction; Lark Rise to Candleford). Sir Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings; The Da Vinci Code) is in the role of Number Two and James Caviezel (Deja Vu; The Passion of the Christ) plays Number Six. The producer is Trevor Hopkins (Dracula; Agatha Christie: Poirot; William and Mary) and direction is by Jon Jones (Cold Feet; Northanger Abbey; Diary of Anne Frank). Location filming is in Namibia and Cape Town, with shooting commencing in the first week of August, 2008. The "pacy, radical reinvention of the original show" is a joint production between AMC (American Movie Channel) and ITV (UK).

Hmm...no mention of Portmerion in the location details.

Testing the iGoogle Blogger gadget

Fancy little tool, just released to "Blogger in Draft"

It will make a significant difference in my life, for sure

 BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US man gets $2.6m for domain name

Miracles of Evolution

I get a little numbed, if not irritated, by the numerous April fool efforts, mainly spread by the web these days.

This one from the BBC though is worth noting. Here's the back-story.

 

Britain's biggest mobile crane helps build the new East London line

Update: Bridge now in place:

Weather conditions allowing, watch, via the webcam on Saturday the 29th, as the 350 tonne bridge gets lowered into place.

TfL Press release

Subprime Primer

 Subprime Primer

"The thing's hollow — it goes on forever — and — oh my God! — it's full of stars!"

Arthur C.Clarke - Obituary

I read A Fall of Moondust when I was about 10, my first real SF read. Clarke turned me on to the genre.

Clarke's Three Laws

1. "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
2. "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."
3. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Terminator 0.1 Beta

Shifting Google Gears to mobile

Another offline step, no doubt offline Google Docs & Gmail are not too far behind.

Official Google Mobile Blog: Shifting Google Gears to mobile

Google Sites ...or JotSpot reborn

Not exactly a Lotus Notes or MS Sharepoint killer, but pretty good collaborative free/low cost alternative! Another route for Corporates to lose IS control, and potentially leak intellectual property.

FriendFeed is now open to the public

I've been using the private beta for some time, and now this team (many ex Google), have raised a $5m, and the site is now open for registration.

If you like the newsfeed concept of Facebook, but don't like the application "noise", then maybe give it a try?

I like it.

FriendFeed

Fluid Dynamics

Best Slow Motion Balloon Pop Ever - Watch more free videos

YouTube poisoned, but recovers quickly

Religious fervour hits YouTube as Pakistan Telecom blocks their traffic worldwide for some 60 minutes this evening. Accidental poisoning?

The BBC was following, Twitter was buzzing.

Update: Not so much poisoning, as incompetence.

At last, a couple of new themes for Blackberry 88xx

Scribble .jad download; it's different.

Today Plus Zen .jad download; updated Today Plus, right-scroll pops up the apps menu, my favourite.

Facebook is forever - The Boston Globe

Saying "goodbye" sometimes isn't easy! More concerns about retention of personal data makes the mainstream media.

Great quote from the Boston Globe article, "It's like the Hotel California," said Nipon Das, 34, a director at a biotechnology consulting firm in Manhattan. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Nokia making a Social Networking play with Twango

Nokia acquired Twango back in Summer 2007. The covers are now coming off a yet-another-social-networking offering. With many millions of camera capable, well connected phones, perhaps they are capable of making a dent?

Twango Blog - Media Sharing: Photos, Video, Audio & More

GOOG and MSFT; the posturing begins

Google bats one over the net, Microsoft returns, and on Superbowl Sunday too.

The DRM walls are tumbling?

Looks like 2008 might well be the year the DRM wall comes down.

Amazon announced today they plan to (licensing allowing) to extend DRM music sales beyond the US.

As the DRM free purchase model market expands via different suppliers, I suspect a segment of people who have legitimately purchased music in the past from say, iTunes, will now become aware of the DRM locked-in library they have invested in. They might not want to pay again, or perhaps they wont care....

iTunes Plus for a few months has opened a route to allow users to "upgrade" to some previously purchased music to DRM free, but I've not seen any news on the uptake of that service.

Joost feeling the squeeze?

Joost have just lost/pushed their CTO, Dirk-Willem van Gulik. He's jumped over (or been snapped up by) to the BBC to work on a range of back-end infrastructure to support their interactive services.

Joost, with its required client-side install, and funky UI, and un-compelling content has never seemed to have caught the masses attention. I have it, I played with it, I don't use it. With my various other video options (YouTube (& variants), AppleTV, OnDemand via cable, BBC iPlayer, etc.) it wont get my attention. Rumours imply their money is running out fast too.

Blodgett labelled it for me, "Joost is the PointCast of 2007".

Deadpool contender.

BBC - Press Office - Dirk-Willem van Gulik: Future Media & Technology Chief Technical Architect

A Soap recipe

Courtesy of Jim Shelley, The Guardian, if you're not in the UK, adjust the ingredients to fit your equivalent cultural stereotype.

Facebook Widget Installing Spyware

The first of many? Another good reason to be wary of pimping out your Facebook profile!

Fortinet Global Security Research Team discovered a malicious Facebook Widget (officially, a "Platform Application") actively spreading on the social networking site which ultimately prompts users to install the infamous "Zango" adware/spyware.

FortiGuard Center - FortiGuard Advisory - Facebook Widget Installing Spyware