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When I see a headline like this: “Red sea urchin ‘almost immortal’“, I assume it’s another case of a duff journo being sloppy with his language. ‘Almost immortal’ being an oxymoron, and all.

But no, it turns out that the line is a sub-edited quote from one of the scientists involved in studying the ‘practically immortal’ red sea urchin. Gee, I’ve real faith in that research.

Wow. Terragen may not have the glossy interface of Bryce, but the output is [cough] pretty good.

 

Some of those who know me know also a friend/colleague of mine who used to work in Leeds, and is now in Glasgow. Yes, that’s exactly who I’m talking about.

If I say the words ‘Pudsey Bear’ and ‘costume’… yup, you’re already on the floor laughing.

Yes, he is. Friday night. BBC Scotland.

[snigger]

Good luck, mate.

A couple of days ago, somebody gave me an organisational problem without an obvious solution. This morning I had a thought that may give me a way around it; tonight I found myself saying ‘I haven’t solved the problem yet, but I may have a way of recasting it such that it’s more readily solvable.’

I don’t recall using that particular turn of phrase since I was an undergrad. ‘Non-trivial’ I use… actually, I over-use. And there are several other Cambridge-induced phrasings that still wheedle their way into, if not daily, perhaps monthly life. But this is one I’ve not called on for many a moon.

Welcome back, old friend.

Cripes. I’m writing a script about using the X-Plane flight simulator to explore Mars from the comfort of your bedroom. Yes, it has a full terrain map – cool, huh?

Anyway, I wrote a wrap-up line, in standard hyperbole style:

So that’s how you can explore Mars in your bedroom – and if you ever go there in person, you’ll know what to expect.

Only after I’d written it did I realise that some of the viewers of this show actually might go to Mars. You’ve got to consider it at least somewhat possible within the next thirty years, and seven year-olds now – well, they’d be bang in the right demographic.

Now there’s a thought. Sometimes I forget that I grew up watching Johnny Ball and How, and owe a considerable fraction of my enthusiasm for science and engineering to them. Kids today have got… er… the shows I make. Sure, there are lots of hands-on centres and all that – but in terms of reach, well… blimey, that’s sobering.

Perhaps it’s better that I don’t quite grasp this. I kinda wish I hadn’t heard Jamelia on the Radio 1 Chart Show the other week saying how much she liked the show, you know?

As if Exposé hadn’t already convinced us that a system-wide hardware accelerated GUI is a Seriously Good Thing, The IconFactory’s latest gizmo xScope hammers home the point that systemwide transparency support is Oh So Ludicrously Cool. We’ve seen on-screen rulers before, but this is ridiculous.

Mac users: download, play, join me in wishing you had a big web design project to do just so you could use this stuff in anger. Windows users: sorry, you’ll have to wait for Longhorn in 2006 or so before you get things like this.

Was that smug? That sounded a little smug. Sorry.

Police Squad: the Zucker Brothers’ seminal early TV series that introduced Leslie Neilson’s comic masterpiece Lt. Frank Drebbin. Everyone remembers it, despite there only having been six episodes (yes, really), and despite it having bombed massively when first shown.

Strangely, pretty much nobody remembers Sledge Hammer, despite it having been a considerable success in its day. Essentially a Dirty Harry pastiche, the series presented a terrific counterbalance to Miami Vice and all the other tacky 80s cop shows, in a way that nothing else did until McG’s Fastlane. Which, ironically, appears to have failed because people thought it was trying to be serious.

If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, try here and here for a refresher. But the chances are you simply don’t remember the series, because precious few people seem to. Curious.

Apple get the little things right so often, it’s rather a shock when they mess up. Like, for example, the occasion I recently had to have my .mac account password sent to my email address, and this happened:

Er….