Google Static Maps

Google Static Maps Launched
A jolly useful feature, this. Google Maps are normally known for their super duper javascript/ajax maps that you can move around, but they now offer maps that can be put on websites as static images, like the one I created below showing Swindon’s best known landmark.

Will Hutton on Terminal 5

From The Guardian
British companies, BA included, almost always decide to improve capability on the hoof. One BA baggage handler said there had been only four ‘familiarisation days’ before Terminal 5 - a small city in scale - went live. On the day, there were problems of car park access, ID cards and lift systems. There […]

Norwich Airport

FlyBe send passengers to Dublin 
Budget airline Flybe advertised for actors to fly between Norwich and Dublin to boost passenger numbers and avoid a £280,000 commercial penalty.
The airline took the step to avoid a penalty charge from Norwich Airport if it did not carry 15,000 passengers on the route by 31 March.
The airport […]

The Byron Report

I’ve just read the Executive Summary of the Byron Report into video gaming and the internet (you can read the summary or full report here) and I have to say that it’s not too bad.
There’s plenty in the Executive Summary to make me think that this is someone who is approaching the subject with an […]

Philippines Playboy

via USAToday
MANILA (AP) — A Philippine edition of Playboy will debut on newsstands next week, but the traditionally racy magazine will not show frontal nudity, the editor-in-chief said Thursday.
Beting Laygo Dolor said the monthly magazine — synonymous the world over with centerfolds of bare-breasted women — will feature “anything under the sun of interest […]

Comic Guy

From the Daily Fail 
Guy Ritchie, 39, opted to dress as cartoon character Asterix - donning a shapeless white tunic, platinum blonde plaits and a Viking helmet with horns.
Sounds more like Obelix.

Django on Windows

Between now and the Mac being returned, and a new laptop arriving (there’s a Dell with a good reputation for dual-booting on Ubuntu), I decided to have a go at seeing if I could get Django installed on Windows.
So, I’ve followed some of this, while I keep going through the jolly good Django Book. I’ve […]

Someone Got the Internet Very Wrong

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.
This article from 1995 made me chuckle, in a way that bad predictions often do, and also with nostalgia. Add it to the man at Decca who thought that “guitar groups are on the way out” when auditioning The Beatles (and picked The Tremeloes instead) or Lord Kelvin’s “Heavier-than-air […]

The Mac…

… is Going Back.
Replacing it will be a Windows/Ubuntu dual-boot.
Your mileage may vary with it.

Free Mac FTP Clients

I’ve just tried a couple of options for free FTP clients on Mac.
Tom recommended the Mac Fusion/Mac Fuse option where you have FTP drives mounted in Finder, and I think that’s a really elegant approach, but had some instability. It may be that Leopard isn’t playing nice or something.
Personally, I liked Cyberduck, which also plays […]