Andrew Wilkinson

Richard Dawkins is supposed to be giving a speech at the University of Oklahoma. A legislator has tried to stop him by banning him from the whole state!

Read the text of the proposal here.

Nice to know that free speech is alive and well in America...

I don't think Amazon have quite got the point of Valentine's day. On their frontpage at the moment they're showing...



Either Amazon wrongly assumes I'm single (although given the geeky nature of some of the things on my wishlist it's a reasonable guess) or they're really missing the point.

From the BBC: Women who don a little red dress before going out with a man may find their date more attentive and generous, according to scientists.

The article then goes on to talk about the colour red. I think they've made a rather basic error. Let me correct it for them...


Women who don a little dress before going out with a man may find their date more attentive and generous, according to scientists.


There, one less word and just as realistic.

So the fire alarm is currently broken in my office, and we're working through intermittent loud ringing.

It's a bit like being back at school - time for the next class!

Oh no! My credit card has been declined while Play.com were trying to ship Super Mario Galaxy.

It's just because I've exceeded my credit card limit, but still, gah. Hopefully my payment will clear today and Play can still get it to me in time for Friday.

Out of my office window I can see a fashion show that is taking place as part of London Fashion Week. I can officially announce that next year's fashion is going to be 'odd looking'.

I decided to enter the Get Up And Play competition that Coca Cola are running to win an 'Ultimate Wii Games Room'. Admittedly I already have a Wii, but I'd give the second one to my brother and I just want a free TV.

When you click to find out more about the TV you can win they say...

The R8 also comes equipped with 2 x HDMI connections so you can enjoy playing the Wii in the highest digital quality.


That's funny, I thought the Wii only had composite S-Video and component connectors. There's no HDMI connector to be found on the back of my Wii...

Today Ellen was at a conference run by EBSCO, an organisation that provides journal services to libraries. In the conference goody bag she was given a key ring, which consists of Tux the penguin with EBSCO printed on his chest. If you don't believe that it is Tux compare the photo below (click for a larger image) to the drawings here.



The question is "why?". Surely they can come up with a better keyring than the Linux mascot? Their website makes no mention of Linux or Tux, so it truely is baffling why they would do this.

Has anyone who's still at York been to seen Steve Lamacq? It sounds like he's broadcasting live from Vanburgh common room ahead of a gig at Fibbers.

I can't believe I was at York for 6 years and 6 months after I leave a Lamacq In The City takes place there. Grr!

Does anyone out there in LJ-land use Twitter? It seems to be getting a big following, so I thought I would give it a go. If you've got an account add me as a friend*!

It fulfils a very similar role to Facebook's status updates so it seems silly to have to update both (unless you want to say something private on Facebook). Unfortunately while there is a bridge from Facebook to Twitter (Twitterbook) there isn't a bridge for the other direction. Facebook don't allow you to set a user's status through their API (an odd decision in my opinion), so this doesn't seem likely to change in the near future.

It's a shame because being able to update Twitter through your IM client is such a cool idea.

Maybe when I get some time I should work through Facebook's javascript and see if I can replicate it. I did read in the Facebook developer's forum that doing that would be against their Terms of Service so perhaps it wouldn't be a good idea...

* The same username as my Livejournal account.

I was in York today on one of my bi-weekly trips up North (it's cold up there!). While on the bus back to the station I overheard the ticket collector say that the fancy barcode-scanning, ticket printing, why would anyone want change? machines are to be removed next week. Has anyone heard anything about this? Please keep me informed of any developments.

I might live 230ish miles away but for some reason I'm still interested in the busses in York...

The plumber is here fixing our broken shower so the water has been turned off. I forget to fill the kettle beforehand, so now I can't have any tea. NO TEA! This is a serious emergency!

I'm slightly concerned that today, the first time I've come back to Computer Science in York for two weeks (having now moved to Guildford), I've done virtually no work...

In other news John McCririck was on my train this morning and he got off at York.

Does Google make finding a map of somewhere too easy? What you need is AsciiMaps.com.

Were the abstract concept 'silly' to take a physical form it would a jelly-like substance. This much is obvious - but what colour would it be?

Poll #720926 What colour is 'silly'?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18

What colour is 'silly'?

Other

Today is the first annual National Cuddle Day. Now sure, it's a cynical marketing ploy from the bods at Disney to promote Winnie The Pooh's 80th Anniversary, but it's still a nice thought. If you have a significant other make sure you give them a cuddle, and if not, then just cuddle a stranger in the street :-)

Thanks to all 13 of you who voted in yesterday's poll. 11 of the 13 of you (84.6%) gave the answer I wanted you to give, which is in fact the incorrect answer. Mad propz to the mystery 2 people who answered correctly, none of the above.

Like most major cities in this country York is in fact part of a unitary authority, that of City Of York. This unitary authority borders North Yorkshire and East Riding Of Yorkshire, which are both counties, but York is not part of either of them. I'm not entirely sure if this is correct or not, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information floating about depending on whether you're talking about a ceremonial country or a local government organisation, but I believe it is.

I was thinking about adding counties to IndieGigs.co.uk, but if I included these unitary authorities as separate entities then it would defeat the point of having a higher level group than just cities. Thanks to 11 of you who proved that most people consider York to be in North Yorkshire.

I have a quick poll for you to fill in...

I'll post the correct answer, and the reason I want to know in a few days.

Thanks!

Poll #708165
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

What County Is York In?

Other:

The folks over at TheDailyWTF.com often poke fun at a the overuse of buzzwords, Enterprise being an common example. Today's example really does take the biscuit though...

Do you reckon I could get away with using 'Enterprisey' in my thesis? I has a Wikipedia entry so it must be real!

More snow?

Yey for global warming!