Male or Female?

Interesting.

It recognised me as a male.

I wonder did it read my profile, or analyse the text? LOL.

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What it Says on the Tin.

The Brokers with Hands on their Faces Blog.

Only on the Internet.

(via Boing Boing)

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On Middle Age.

I guess I'm middle aged, so this report  brings me so much joy!

"For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power,"
.......
"Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."



I think I knew that!

BUT

The report "suggested that newcomers to the web had not quite grasped
the strategies needed to successfully carry out a web search."

Which means there is work to be done in developing digital literacy?

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On Lust

I so want to visit here.

I think I'd feel at home!

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On Goggles.

It's late.

I'm home from my book club, happy, and slightly under the influence, having drunk several glasses of excellent red wine.

Google just know that am in no fit state to be allowed to send anyone an email.
Google Goggles will take control.


Before I can Gmail anyone on and Friday or a Saturday night I will be required to answer a few simple maths questions. 

Get them wrong, the email doesn't get sent!
Maths was never my strongest subject.

So in future if you don't get an email from me, don't blame me, blame the Goggles.

Do you suppose the Goggles should be applied to my blog too?

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On "American Politics"

Of late, much has been broadcast, written, and blogged about the rapidly approaching American Presidential Elections.

Some say that there is too much comment.

I'm not going to comment but I am going to point in the direction of this CBS interview showing Sarah Palin talking about her Foreign Policy experience and geography.
 
(The clip begins with an advert, be patient).


Be scared, very, very scared!

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On Spiders and Flash and Life.

I'm not a fan of the arachnids.

I'm don't mind looking at them outdoors, but inside ..... Help.

A spider in the classroom never caused me any problems, it's easy to catch and remove a spider when the eyes of thirty interested children are watching your every move.

But in the house, someone else has to do it ....



These thoughts were prompted by this superb experimental project to make a natural spider in flash.

Yuk.


Make sure you watch the video too.



(via redferret)

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Apparently "LLoyds Is Pants"

Reading the news today I came across this story.

As someone who often struggles with creating and remembering passwords, how I wish I had Mr Jetley's imagination.

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On the Olympics

Why?

On missing the end of the Tour de France.

Sadly, I missed the end of the Tour de France as our holiday cottage had limited tv reception, no internet, and no mobile phone reception.

We picked it that way honest.

Fortunately Big Picture helped me catch up.

It's what the internet is for!

On Delicious Things.

Hi.

I'm back from walking on Bodmin Moor, struggling to catch up with my feed readers, emails, favourite reads etc. etc.

I've only been away a week and yet so much has happened.

I came across this Delicious post. Watch the movie to learn more.

Finally I know what to call it.

I love the new interface, now all I need to do is edit sort and finish bundling my tags ( as if I will!).

On Researching Drunks in Cardiff

I live in Cardiff so it's always good to see the city of my birth in the news.

I walked sober through town last Tuesday afternoon.

It strikes me that further research is urgently needed to determine how it might be made possible for pedestrians to walk the length of Queen Street without :-

• being hassled by professional charity collectors in tabards (I don't mean sellers of the Big Issue),
• being presented with leaflets about Chinese medicine and all it's benefits,
• being eyed up (and rejected) by women with clipboards undertaking market research,
• being invited into a mobile phone shop by an adolescent in a suit,
• being approached by a spiv in a suit wondering if I've had an accident worth taking to court,
• being offered the opportunity of purchasing a guide to the Hare Krishna movement, 
• being offered the opportunity to purchase one or all of a pair of designer sunglasses, a silk head scarf, my name displayed as a piece of bent wire, AA or RAC membership, a balloon on a stick, a temporary tattoo or a cuddly toy,  
• running the risk of being run over by a cyclist.

None of those things happen to drunks.

Only in Wales.

Having met this creature I can vouch for this story!

On Bras!

Forgive me but I have noticed that bras have been in the news this week!

First I read of Abbie Hawkins who discovered a bat in her bra, after wearing it for five hours!

Then I read of a facebook group called Busts 4 Justice!

I think I should join.

It seems that in Marks and Spencer DD bras are more expensive than bras for smaller busts.
An unfair tax on large busts says the founder of Busts for Justice.

M and S say larger bras require more material so are more expensive, maybe so, but why doesn't that logic apply to all articles of clothing?

Those of you interested in bras, might find this place of use.
It's a shop with virtual models to help the male of the species buy underwear for his loved one!

It's what the internet was invented for!

On "How to Confuse an idiot".

Smile broadly.


I came across this via BuzzFeed.


It has no place on this blog, but it made me laugh (out loud).

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Clive Sinclair and the Internet.

As a child I saved for ages to buy one of Sir Clive's famous calculators. As a teenager I was the proud owner of one of Sinclair's Spectrum computers; in fact it still sits in the attic.

So I guess he had quite an impact on my life.

But did you see or hear what he had to say yesterday about the internet?

"I don't use it myself directly," he said, explaining that as an inventor he tried to avoid "mechanical and technical things around me so they don't blur the mind".

Do you suppose the internet does blur the mind; or does it open it?
I think it's opened mine, but then I didn't invent a home computer, I just use one.

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On the iPlayer beta

The wizards at the BBC have been hard at work and have let the next version of iPlayer into the word. I've spent little time exploring but it's lovely!.

I turned to it on Saturday to watch Dr. Who and Elbow at Glastonbury (note fast forward four minutes).
Watching Davros and the Daleks on my Mac Book Pro was a delight, even from behind the sofa!

My only complaint as you might expect is that I still can't download programmes on the Mac, but that facility will be here soon so I should be patient.

The new site brings together TV and radio in one place, a sort of super media portal for all the BBC on demand services. They say that sound quality is improved, and the screen is 640 pixels bigger. There's some scheduling information, last played programme information and an excellent scrolling carousel. Watching television is just more fun using the iPlayer interface. The Yesterday on TV display is a clever idea, as is the bringing together of radio and televison programmes in the categories displays. If you have to stop watching a streamed programme, on returning it starts to play where you left it; no more fiddling and estimating running times.

At present the beta version is running in parallel with the mark one player, but I have read somewhere that it will be going fully live in July.

Since iPlayer arrived I have exceeded my ISP download limits twice, it's time to sign up for a new contract

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On Baby's Bums, Asda and a Birthday Cake

It has been reported here and here (nsfw), that a mother who attempted to purchase a birthday cake from Asda for her twenty one year old son, featuring a nude photograph of him taken when he was five months old; was told tht the photograph would have to be censored as it showed him nude.

Asda deny thinking that the photograph was pornographic, it's just that their "policy across the board" is that they "don't do nudity of any sort at any age".

In the end staff solved the problem by covering baby David's bum with a star!

Is this the sign of a healthy society?



I wonder do they have a policy about selling cigarettes, or cheap alcohol?

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On Talent

In the States there's a programme called So You Think You Can Dance.


This guy can. Watch him and wonder about "Britain's Got Talent"

SYTYCD Season 4 - Robert Muraine - Audition

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On Competition for Amazon

Borders my favourite bookshop is returning to the world of online book selling with a truly magnificent new store.

It's only available in the States at the moment but the UK version doesn't seem to be far away.

I can't wait.


I just love the magic shelf, it scrolls left and right, up and down; a joy to browse on my Mac.