At Home with John and Debbie

Since yesterday, Google Maps has added higher resolution satellite images of the UK and Europe. Much of the country still isn’t at the highest resolutions, but here are some London landmarks:
The Millennium Wheel
Tate Modern and Millennium Bridge
St Paul’s Cathedral
Hyde Park
Houses of Parliament
Covent Garden Market
Trafalgar Square
Tower Bridge
The Gherkin (under construction)
Millennium Dome
Canary Wharf / 1 Canada [...]

Sony BMG has introduced a new copy protection scheme which makes copying a CD to MP3, well, more trouble than it’s worth.
My preferred means of buying music is to buy a CD, rip it to MP3, enjoy having the CD and packaging available on the shelf, while using the MP3 as the normal way [...]

The Power of Nightmares, which I mentioned briefly yesterday, is a BBC documentary which, over the course of three hour-long episodes, asserts that governments are vastly exaggerating the terrorist threat in order to maintain power. What’s more, the rag-tag affiliation of independent extremists that makes up Al Qaeda is all too happy to play [...]

Debbie’s iPod Mini kicked the bucket after only a month’s light use — it made poorly hard disk noises (yuk, I’ve heard those before), then displayed a picture of a sad iPod. So, we got to try out Apple’s repair service, under warranty.
Here’s how it works: On Thursday 9th June, I signed into the [...]

Google Maps seems to have added mainland Europe, and a satellite view of the UK. However, the zoom level for the UK map is woeful. Never mind.

As promised by the forecasts, sure enough here’s a heatwave. People whos windows adjoin flat roofs in Old Town are sitting on said roofs sunbathing — it reminds me of Do The Right Thing, only without the simmering racial tension and escalation into violence… and with rubbish R&B and techno instead of pounding late [...]

Having booked long, long ago for a gig which was postponed, finally we went with Gav and his nice friend Narj to see Ben Folds at Warwick Arts Centre.
Support was Clem Snide, a singer/songwriter with a guitar, sort of in the Lauden Wainwright III mould (although the Web site suggests that in another configuration, [...]

“The whole country of Japan is like an uber-Leamington Spa“. Well, that saves me a future plane ticket…
I don’t quite understand why the man’s so down on lovely Leamington (where, let me remind you, I live because I really, really like it). If you feel enclosed, spend £5 on a return train to Birmingham.
That [...]

This Flash animation illustrates how things could go if the march towards a database state (i.e. national ID cards) goes unabated. At the end it links to the American Civil Liberties Union, but for a UK-centric view of things, go to NO2ID.
(Thanks PFH for the link)

I was under the impression that the 1981 BBC adaptation of Day of the Triffids — wonderful, and surely the prototype for big chunks of 28 Days Later — was so mired in problems over ownership that we’d never see a DVD release of it, but joy of joys, here it is.
And what’s this? [...]