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26 January, 2006

“Due to a whale in the Thames services may be subject to delays”. And yes it’s true!
I should have blogged this sooner. It’s not as funny now that the whale is dead. I stuck it up on my Flickr account right away but forgot to cross-reference it here. You might find it interesting to check out or ’subscribe to’ my photo feed there - particularly if you know me. I tend largely to take pictures of odd things I see around London that intrigue me. There’s a little ‘jigsaw’ of pics from it on the navigation bar at right…
21 January, 2006
Ever get an email from a stranger and wanted to know where they were? Or wanted to complain about a particular piece of spam? Here’s a guide that spells out how to trace an email (and how to then complain to the originator’s internet provider if appropriate).
12 January, 2006
Canada is not merely not a page turner but even a socially acceptable synonym for boredom among otherwise apparently open-minded people. Why should this be? The same people who perk up at the mere mention of Palestine, or who become instantly animated over Venezuela, show more interest in the drying of paint than about Canada.
A Guardian columnist recently tried to get Brits interested in Canada - more particularly the upcoming election - but spent two thirds of his column making fun of Canada’s dullness and the remaining third completely misinterpreting the current Canadian political situation (does anyone really think that if Harper does win (God forbid) it would mark a true Conservative revival?)
8 January, 2006

(Yes there is a site you can visit if you click on the ad).
It’s a good thing I can only play Civilization IV on my wife’s computer - if it ran on my Mac, my productivity would be nil. It is fun though - dare I say more fun than Civ III? The new version requires a lot less micro-management than Civ III did.
P.S. I interviewed Civ’s creator, Sid Meier, back in 2002 when he was promoting Civ III (and I’ve got a picture to prove it).
Media
(Daily)
BBC
News Online
bookforum
(Weekly)
lifehacker - but I only look at their top these days.
The
Economist (I listen to the audio edition)
Arts
& Letters Daily
The
New Yorker & its cartoons
(Monthly
or more infrequently)
Wired
magazine
Prospect
magazine (if you think The
Economist is dumbed down)
Maisonneuve
magazine
The
Walrus
First Monday
- an Internet-only peer reviewed journal of Internet studies
Gnovis
- peer-reviewed journal of Communication, Culture and Technology
Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication
...and various other journals you can't access for free.
Virtual
Communities I belong to
The
Well
Brainstorms
from Howard Rheingold
CIX
the UK's "Well" for over 15 years
I'm also on Facebook
Comics
Doonesbury
Dilbert
Multimedia
US Public Radio
Day
to Day NPR daily topical feature
show inc. Slate
content
BBC Radio 4
- archived for a week after broadcast
BBC
Radio Drama original drama and
serialised books
BBC7
radio dramas and comedy from BBC archives
The
News Quiz
BBC World Service
Analysis
Assignment
Off the Shelf
(serialised books)
Other
non-podcast multimedia
The
Daily Show biting American
political satire.
Odd Todd
periodically updated amusing Flash cartoons
Tales
of Mere Existence excellent
Quicktime animated short vignettes.
Guardian
- monthly Cybercinema roundup
OneWord
Radio audiobooks and author
interviews
Podcasts
News/Current Affairs/Factual
Thinking
Allowed weekly interviews with
academics
This
American Life superb storytelling
LSE public lectures
The
University Channel guest lectures at major US universities
The Guardian's Podcasts
Slate's
podcasts
From
Our Own Correspondent
Fiction/drama
Escape Pod
- SF short stories
Librivox
- volunteer readers read classic fiction.
Craphound - Cory Doctorow reads his works
NPR
book reviews
Digital Planet tech radio programme
with emphasis on the developing world (now being podcast)
(also see the Go Digital special
Digital
Destinations) and
Bill
Thompson's
thoughts about recent Digital Planets
IT
Conversations: Blogging
(broadcasts from conferences - other topics available)
NPR
has a weekly tech roundup
Useful
stuff
Various
handy free/cheap Mac apps
(updated regularly)
Online
virus scanner
Free
anti-virus software
Dave's
Quick Search Toolbar Google
taskbar on steroids
Workrave
Free RSI prevention software
Powermarks
Superb Windows bookmark manager ($25)
Netvouz
This may be the most full-featured web bookmark manager around.
Endnote
($239 ) Great software for managing academic citations (or try one of these)
snipurl
lets you share long urls easily
Mailwasher
Lets you choose between several blacklists and other filtering tools to
get rid of spam from multiple POP3 mailboxes - and it is free!
SpamMotel
- Free disposable email addresses that let you see who is misusing the
one you gave them
DigiGuide
- a fast, powerful TV guide for your PC, covering the UK, US or Ireland
TotalRecorder
- a powerful, inexpensive way to record streaming audio into MP3 files
to take away.
QuestionPro
survey software Lots of features
and free for academic use.
What's the weather like
here?
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