Torchwood

The BBC launched its new "Dr. Who for grown ups" today. Called Torchwood, it follows a team of alien artifact experts working to understand strange technology which has fallen through a gap in space/time and landed in Wales.

Or something.

It is high grade, imaginative hocum with a big budget look and I'm signing up. It is certainly not for kiddies, but this grown up likes it.

The first episode is very nicely plotted with a lovely twist at the end. The second overcooks things a little bit, but is still worth watching.

And it looks like there are some lovely plot arcs being slotted into place.

BBC 2 is repeating the program on Wednesdy night. Worth a watch.

Pictures of Hull

I like the roof of this arcade

Fancy a burger?

Useful Hull Web Sites

My mate Geoff has made a couple of very useful web sites for people who live in Hull. One gives you a list of what is on at the local Cineworld and the other the weather forecast. They both go onto web sites to scrape the data and then present a page just right for viewing on a mobile device:

http://www.geoff.org.uk/cinema.php

http://www.geoff.org.uk/weather.php

Worth adding to your mobile favourites.

Don't Read This

If I shout "120 dots per inch" on January the first, does this count as a New Years Resolution?

(I did warn you)

When someone rings me a penguin dances

One of my students very kindly sent me a Firebox.com voucher after I helped her debug her program (not sure how this figures in the scheme of things bribery + corruption wise, but since the voucher has a cash redemption value of 0.001 pence I don't think I necessarily have to inform the authorities).

Anyhoo, it was off down to the Firebox web site to see what goodies they had in store. I got the latest version of 20Q - which is even more impressive than the original - and a bunch of mopods for me and the ladies in my family (they won't work for number one son 'cos he is on 3G - but you can't have everything). Actually, the voucher only covered a small part of the total price - but since I was saving money I was quite happy about this....

Mopods are fun. They are a little figure in a tiny glass jar and when your phone rings they dance. I got the penguin one which is quite neat. In the unlikely event of someone ringing me up (although it did happen in a lecture today....) he spins on the spot and lights flash. For a fiver they are quite good value.  Actually, I get quite a bit of dance action because he also detects when my phone connects to ActiveSync email and does a little dance then too.