Theme - festive - yes! Christmas Carols.
It's a game! Kids will want to buy it - yes! Get them in the pictures.
Spurious reality show pop star contestant, turned attempted tv presenter, whose career has, er slowed a bit - present and correct.
And the results, dear readers are below. I give you the launch of, A Christmas Carol the video game on the Nintendo DS modelled by Suzanne Shaw.
The city's iconic Selfridges building is one of the official wallpapers for Windows 7.
As most computer users never do anything like downloading anything different, it is fair to say that it will adorn the screens of countless users.
Below: the release client Windows 7 wallpaper selection:
A slightly bigger image of the Selfridges shop:
The figures, showing a 52 per cent drop in profits, were described as 'disappointing' by commentators, and blamed on waning sales for the Nintendo Wii console.
Apparently price cuts to the Playstation 3 have hit sales of the hitherto all conquering Wii.
My own opinion on this is that you can only sell so much of one thing before everyone who could possibly want one, er, has one.
Don't forget that the Nintendo Wii has sold 56 million around the world.
Also don't forget that it was launched in the UK in December 2006 - and three years is a long time in the gaming industry.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Nintendo Wii 2 was imminent - after all, manufacturers rarely give much away before bringing to market a new item of technology because it will hit the last sales of their previous product, which are still clogging up the shelves in the run up to the launch.
]]>The man took his £30,000 Vauxhall Monaro to a garage behind the Hallmark Motor Sales car dealership on Portway, just off the A435 near Redditch where it was due to have a radiator leak fixed.
When he returned to pick up the car he discovered footage on his in-car "black-box style" recorder which showed the mechanics taking the car on a high-speed burn along a nearby road.
The recorder had activated automatically when it sensed the car being put under unusual g-forces, caused by the reckless speed of the drivers.
The car's owner said: "It was supposed to be in my local friendly garage having a radiator leak fixed. In fact the boys in the garage were out having fun."
When he confronted the mechanics was told that they hadn't realised how fast they were going, before apologising."
He said the police are now involved in the incident.
The car - which was once described by television's Jeremy Clarkson as "truly wonderful" - is reportedly capable of speeds of up to 180 mph.
The footage was captured on a Roadhawk recording device. The camera starts recording whenever it senses anything unusual so that footage can be used in court to settle disputes in case of an accident.
It is thought to be available in shops for as little as £300.
Video captured during the joy ride shows the mechanic taking the car on to the A435 and accelerating up to 125mph before turning on to country roads where he continues to flout the speed limits.
]]>Computer enthusiasts ignored cautious warnings over Microsoft's latest Windows operating system today as high street electronics stores celebrated bumper sales.
More than 500 people queued outside a PC World store in central London to be among the first Britons to get their hands on Windows 7 as it was released to positive reviews.
The operating system aims to improve on its predecessor Vista by simplifying everyday tasks. Microsoft says it has listened to feedback from billions of customers around the world.
Despite advice from consumer watchdog Which? urging computer users to wait a year before switching to Windows 7, online and high street stores recorded sales surges.
"We had to stay open an extra hour than planned because of the sheer numbers of people trying to get hold of a copy and take advantage of these deals."
Online retailer Amazon.co.uk said the operating system was now its "biggest grossing pre-order product of all time", having overtaken the likes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Nintendo Wii.
The latest features include a redesigned taskbar with less clutter, a tool showing the status of connected devices including cameras and mobile phones, and quicker, slicker previews of an application's open windows.
James Gorbold, deputy editor of Custom PC, said: "It's a massive step forward from Vista."
He said Vista was annoying, frustrating, and came at too high a price while Windows 7 "sorts out these problems and adds lots of useful features".
"It's a lot faster and much more responsive," he said.
But Matthew Bath, technology editor at Which?, said there was a lot of confusion around the pricing, adding that Microsoft "hasn't helped itself" by having six different editions.
"Microsoft is certainly betting a lot on the release of Windows 7," he said.
He suggested it would be best for customers to wait before buying in order that early teething problems were ironed out.
The versions PC users are most likely to see for sale are the Home Premium and Professional editions.
A Home Premium software upgrade will cost £79.99 until January 1, at which point it will go up to £99.99. The full version costs £149.99.
The Professional edition upgrade will be on sale for £189.99, while the full version costs £219.99.
]]>More than 15 million calls, costing an average of £1.75, are made to technical support lines every year, according to data from the uSwitch price comparison website.
Almost half of the 12,000 customers questioned said they were not satisfied with computer technical support.
Of the service providers, Orange and Tiscali finished bottom of the satisfaction table, with ratings of 42% and 47% respectively.
]]> TalkTalk kept customers waiting longest on hold with an average wait of 12 minutes.He added: "In such a competitive arena it's surprising that they haven't wised up to the fact that customers expect more from their broadband service than a cheap deal.
"They want a service they can rely on - and when things go wrong they need assurance that their service will be back up and running again as quickly as possible and at minimum expense. If they are not happy they will simply switch away."
In total, nearly £6 million a year is spent calling technical helplines.
Up to six million broadband customers called for technical help over the last year, with network connection problems cited as the most common complaint.
Customers also usually have to call technical helplines at least twice to fix the same problem - just four out of 10 customers (41%) successfully resolved a problem in just one call, the survey showed.
]]>The internet plays a "vital" role in the lives of the 16 to 24 age group, with three quarters saying they feel they could not live without it, research conducted for YouthNet has found.
A survey commissioned by the online charity into the views of 994 young people in the UK in July this year showed 45% said that they felt happiest when online.
]]>"The incredible speed in which communication methods are changing means that young people are trailblazing new ways to converse that many of my generation struggle to understand.
"With the huge number of unregulated and unmoderated websites, blogs, networks and groups that exist online, the need for a safe, trusted place has never been greater, which is why YouthNet will be taking the insights of this report to heart as we plan the future of our services."
Professor Hulme, of the Institute for Advanced Studies, at Lancaster University, said: "For young people, the internet is part of the fabric of their world and does not exist in isolation from the physical world, rather it operates as a fully integrated element.
"In the future as access becomes ever more mobile, multi-platform, faster and with richer media - in other words ever on and everywhere - the need and demand for advice through the internet will become even more critical."
:: The report findings coincide with a fundraising appeal by YouthNet to help redevelop its website, www.TheSite.org, providing advice and information to young people.
]]>Some 10 million people - 17% of the entire population - have never been online, and four million of them come from economically or socially excluded backgrounds, according to research carried out for internet tsar Martha Lane Fox.
She warned today that those without access to the web were missing out not only on shopping bargains, but also work and training opportunities and official information on issues like the swine flu outbreak.
The first piece of research produced for her by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the average family would miss out on savings totalling £560 a year if they did not use the internet to shop around for the cheapest deals on products like energy, insurance and household items. The four million economically and socially excluded people without internet access were missing out on an average £300 annually - a total of £1.2 billion.
The report also found that 1.8 million children growing up in digitally excluded families could increase earnings by more than £8,000 each over their lifetimes - a total of £10.8 billion - by becoming web-literate.
Ms Lane Fox, best known for founding shopping website lastminute.com, said that the four million economically and socially excluded individuals who were not using the net included 39% who were aged over 65, 38% were unemployed people living without children and 19% were families with children.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "As a consumer, you are missing out on great savings if you don't shop online, let alone the fact that more and more Government services are going to become digitised.
"If you look at the recent swine flu scare, think about how much information was online and how much more quickly and timely you got the information.
"I think it is worth fighting for the rights of people to have the same choices and access to the same benefits as all of us who are web-enabled."
]]>Because they're stupid, that's why.
It's one thing clicking on a very convincing email from your bank or building society. I can understand why people might fall for that.
But the recent revelation that passwords for more than 10,000 Hotmail accounts have been stolen and then posted online revealed something else too.
Incredibly the most popular hotmail account password was 12345. Some people went for engima machine-style complexity though. Yes, they drastically upped the number of symbols to 1234567 and even in some extreme cases 12345678!
It's a good job the Germans didn't have such codemasters otherwise Bletchley Park would never have broken their transmissions!
Just one more of the top ten passwords worth passing on - 111111.
A Microsoft spokesman said: "We are aware that some Windows Live Hotmail customers' credentials were acquired illegally by a phishing scheme and exposed on a website.
"Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation.
"As part of that investigation, we determined that this is not a breach of any Microsoft servers.
"Subsequently, we are taking measures to block access to all of the accounts that were exposed and have resources in place to help those users reclaim their accounts."
Sadly for Microsoft, raising the iq of their users is beyond their capabilities.
]]>The (admittedly rather limited) report found that half of us spend more time talking to friends online than on phone or in person and find it hard to express their feelings in the real world.
In a tragic coincidence it was today revealed that Little Britain star Matt Lucas' former partner Kevin McGee, 32, (both pictured right) was found dead in his Edinburgh flat by police, after leaving a message on the social networking site Facebook.
McGee reportedly chose to post: "Kevin McGee thinks that death is much better than life."
A quick google search reveals a host of people who have left suicide notes on Facebook before killing themselves.
I remember reading years ago a short story in a science fiction collection about the unlikely scenario in a little populated world where people were just living alone, communicating via computers, and a prospective meeting of another person causes feelings of terror in the main protagonist.
It was a sad reflective piece, but, the truth seems to be even more tragic and bizarre - where people at the end of their tethers feel only able to express their feelings to electronic friends.
Yahoo, which commissioned the survey (admittedly small - only 1,050 nationwide were asked) have put up Psychologist Jo Hemmings to say: "The stereotype is that Britons are typically unexpressive people, but the rise of online communication has highlighted that this isn't true - we just need the right outlet. This study shows that the online world is acting as our self-expression release valve and 'Net-pression' is an important daily act for millions of Britons".
After, all you wonder if the average football fan is technology savvy enough to arrange to see the game on his or her computer screen. (Although don';t forget meanny people watch games online for free via foreign websites to avoid paying for Sky)
It has certainly got some interest going - England defender Rio Ferdinand has described it as: "A good step forward".
He added: "I read that online advertising has taken over from TV, so that tells you something about where it's going in terms of the digital world.
"So I'm sure it'll be the way forward and in the future it'll probably be the reality. I think it's a good way to gauge how many people are interested."
The match will represent the first time in recent history that British-based viewers will not be able to watch an England match live on television.
Watching the game online will cost £4.99 for early subscribers.
Fans spokesman Mark Perry said the fact the match was available only on the internet was "disastrous and an outrage."
"A World Cup qualifier should be available for everybody on free-to-air TV," Perryman said.
Anyone interested should go to http://www.ukrainevengland.com/
Charges rise to £9.99 for those who subscribe on Thursday and Friday, and £11.99 on Saturday.
So is Rio right? The figures will show, but in the past his judgment has included reviving the career of model Francoise Boufhal, pictured below, to front his magazine after she 'impressed' him during her interview. I leave you to draw your own conclusions about his judgment (perhaps though it might be said that it 'understands' what works on the internet).
Solicitors Griffin Law, who dealt with the matter, dubbed it "Blaney's Blarney Order" after the subject matter - a blog called Blaney's Blarney (donalblaney.com).
It requires an unknown Twitter user anonymously posting under the same name, and thus breaching the copyright and intellectual property of the blog's owner, to stop posting and immediately identify themselves.
Matthew Richardson, the barrister who obtained the order at a hearing at London's High Court before Mr Justice Lewison, said: "The Blaney's Blarney Order is a huge step forward in preventing anonymous abuse of the internet.
"People have to learn that they can no longer hide behind the cloak of anonymity the internet provides and break the law with impunity."
Donal Blaney, the victim of the anonymous impersonation and the principal of Griffin Law, said: "This is an important step in dealing with online bullying. The scales of justice have been tilted in favour of innocent victims today."
]]>Louis Vuitton has already won a French court action, successfully claiming that Google acted illegally by allowing other companies to use the Vuitton names as a key search words for adverts on Google.
But today, in an interim legal "opinion" in the EU's highest court, an Advocate-General said Google had not infringed trademark rights by allowing advertisers to buy keywords corresponding to registered trademarks.
Under current Google policy, a user searching "AdWords" with trademarked keywords finds the name of advertisers appearing on the right-hand side of the screen under the heading "sponsored links".
But in the case of many companies, searches with their trademarks have triggered the appearance in the sponsored links of the names of rivals.
And Louis Vuitton went to court complaining that some of the links appearing during a search using its name are for firms marketing counterfeit or replica goods.
The company says the "AdWords" service, established in the US and now being extended to Europe, enables advertisers to bid on terms like "Louis Vuitton fakes", and that the right to offer a trademarked name as part of a search advertising programme breaches EU rules.
But Advocate-General Poiares Maduro suggests in his legal "opinion" that "Google has not committed a trademark infringement by allowing advertisers to select, in AdWords, keywords corresponding to trademarks".
The use of the trademarks is limited to the selection of keywords - an internal "AdWords" mechanism concerning only Google and the advertisers: "When selecting keywords, there is thus no product or service sold to the general public."
He goes on: "Such a use cannot therefore be considered as being a use made in relation to goods or services identical or similar to those covered by the trademarks. Similarly, advertisers themselves do not commit a trademark infringement by selecting in Adwords keywords corresponding to trademarks."
The Advocate General says Google, by displaying ads in response to keywords corresponding to trademarks, does establish a link between those keywords and the advertised sites selling products identical or similar to those covered by the trademarks.
But the "opinion" goes on: "However, in the view of the Advocate General, such a link also does not constitute a trademark infringement. In effect, the mere display of relevant sites in response to keywords is not enough to establish a risk of confusion on the part of consumers as to the origin of goods or services.
"Internet users are aware that not only the site of the trademark owner will appear as a result of a search in Google's search engine and sometimes they may not even be looking for that site.
"These users will only make an assessment as to the origin of the goods or services advertised on the basis of the content of the ad and by visiting the advertised sites; no assessment will be based solely on the fact that the ads are displayed following the entry of keywords corresponding to trademarks."
Today's "opinion" will now be taken into account by a full panel of EU judges. Their final verdict is expected later this year or early in 2010.
PA
]]>As she rightly points out, in the final analysis people will be stopping new artists from emerging, as record labels, starved of sales, are unable to fund recording and even hunt for new talent.
As people have commented on other blogs too pc gaming is really under threat, with console ports likely to be the only thing to be released in the long term because of the prevalence of piracy.
After all why should a developer put cash into great bespoke strategy games (for example) for the pc if people just rip them off?
Anyway Lily's campaign took a knock today when it emerged fellow stars Gary Barlow and James Blunt have backed her.
There goes public sympathy then...
]]>You'll be amazed to know dedicated to something which gets very little coverage in the media today - the craze for erm skinny girls to enjoy ahh big sandwiches.
Why you may ask? Who knows? I certainly don't but it's weird, seemingly pointless, and sums up what the internet is there for.
According to the site http://skinnygirlsbigsandwiches.com/ it has been "Appreciating skinny girls with big sandwiches since 1984" which is a lot of girls, and a lot of sandwiches I'm sure you would agree.
And there are categories! Like girls eating bacon, lettuce and tomatoes? You're in luck.
Have a weird obsession with fine fillies munching on 'cold cut combo' (whatever that is) - yep it's there. (along with comments such as 'gold star for getting that hot sandwich internal').
Readers can rate their sandwich experience and er that's it. More web weirdness!
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