In a wonderfully sarcastic response to Dave Winer’s concern over Google’s Autolink feature, Yoz Graham argues that Autolink is an extension of a fundamental feature of the web, the user’s ability to change web content to best suit them.

I’m not convinced by this argument; being able to disable images and alter the style of a page to suit personal preference is vital, and this is something every socially responsible web designer should account for. However, Autolink alters the content of the page by adding hypertext links to, for example, postal addresses, allowing the user to view maps of those address.

This alteration only takes place when the user enables it each time a page is loaded, and of course it’s a feature that is of benefit to the user. However, it’s also of commercial interest to Google and allowing Google to benefit from your web content is something that you should have control over, much like Google’s Adsense system.

You can’t stop a juggernaut in pursuit of its own increase, but you can do something about the part where they mess with your website, adding links you didn’t create.
—Zeldman on protecting your site from Google’s new toolbar

The word ‘blog’ seems to have made it into the technology journalist’s vocabulary. However, they still seem to be having real problems with the word ‘weblog’, and this BBC News article by Jo Twist has the most confused version I’ve seen: ‘web blog’.

I suppose the word ‘blog’ as a neologism is acceptable because it can’t be interpreted as a typing error, whereas ‘weblog’ looks as if the writer might have missed a space between two words, prompting irate emails of from non media-savvy BBC News readers.

Stu plays the part of a zombie in a horror film called Dead Centre
_{You’ve got to get out in the fresh air a bit more mate!}

Well it’s a disappointingly clich

2001 Space Helmet Prop Sold on eBay

The Vogons Ponder Over The New Hyperspace By-pass
_{A bureaucracy at work. Nice to see some proper set design and animatronics from the Jim Henson Creature Shop again. More images.}

Reaction to the first episode of Channel 4’s Nathan Barley is a bit mixed judging by a few reviews and forum comments I’ve read this morning.

I thought it was a very well crafted, well observed piece of comedy and I look forward to the rest of the series. It may seem like a diversion from Chris Morris’ normally dark and twisted humour, and I think this is a problem for most Morris fans, but I’m sure that this will change as the series progresses.

Arthur Miller dies aged 89
_{On my English A-Level, Death of a Salesman was a real joy to study after months of Shakespeare.}

The Atherstone Ball Game
_{Even more crazy than the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll.}

Google Maps
_{The draggable and zoomable interface is very impressive. I look forward to it being available in the UK.}

Alan Moore interviews Brian Eno [Realaudio]…
_{…for Radio 4’s Chain Reaction. Last in the series.}

Stellarium is a really nice piece of cross-platform astronomy software released under the GNU General Public License. It discards the complex controls usually associated with such software and is perfect for wannabe amateur-astronomer laypeople like me to locate objects in the night sky.

The rear window of my flat has a southeasterly view over the North Sea, and I was able to use the software to locate both Jupiter and Saturn as they made an appearance through the window over the course of the evening. Through my recently acquired small refractor telescope, I was amazed to see Jupiter’s major moons and Saturns rings, which is something I never thought possible using a small scope.

OS X users may be disappointed by the fact that Stellarium runs full screen and doesn’t use Aqua, but it’s still a very nice looking piece of software as it uses OpenGL to render its graphics. Also, the OS X version has a rather nasty icon, so I made one myself which is presented above (PNG version).

I’ve started adding to my photoblog again
_{I was having problems with the Folderblog software, but I eventually got round to fixing it. I intend to update it daily.}

The iPod Shuffle was introduced exactly 2 weeks before my partner’s birthday. So, thinking that it would make an ideal present, and allowing for a 2 week delivery time, I ordered one straight away. This isn’t a proper review, neither is a comparison with the big iPod because I don’t own one. Rather, it’s a quick list of pros and cons after a week or so of using it (a bit .

Pros

• Very small and light
• No moving parts so it’s impossible to make it skip
• Simple controls mean you can operate it through a layer of clothing, which is useful when out jogging.
• Backwards compatible with my iMac which has USB 1.1, and transfer speed isn’t bad.
• The Autofill feature on iTunes makes it easy to keep the iPod Shuffle full of randomly selected music from your Library.

Cons

• No Ogg Vorbis playback (this is always going to be a problem with the iPods for me)
• Slight popping noise between tracks. Not a problem when you’re out and about, but when listening in a quiet room, it’s slightly distracting.
• The supplied headphones aren’t great, but, like the infamous hockey puck mouse, easily replaceable with something better.