There’s a car I see when I’m walking to work – somebody’s having great fun with the paintwork.  A few weeks ago it was covered in text. Now it looks like a cave painting on speed! Brilliant stuff.

This is a very interesting variant on Virtual reality – an artificial character relating to a ‘player’ and being able to ‘see’ objects the player has used. The creator describes it as technology which hasn’t even been described yet in science fiction.

The designer, Peter Molyneux, is a veteran of the computer game industry. He was responsible for Populous and Theme Park (and many many more, as they say).

Although the filmed ‘demo’ may be a bit staged to show off its best features, it’s still seriously impressive.

BBC News – ‘Virtual human’ Milo comes out to play at TED in Oxford.

Oh look. The BBC news website has had a makeover. More white space. More images. Larger text. More sample items in each section. Looks OK.

I use it all the time, so if anything I spot puts me into ‘grumpy old man wearing trousers up to his chin’ mode, I’ll let you know!

You see, I used to like it, back when Christopher Eccleston reintroduced the character with Billie Piper as his sidekick. It was a bit edgy, fresh and intriguing, with clever twisting plot patterns being woven in the background.

Since then, it has decended into a typical ‘BBC-fest’ of  special guest stars & self-congratulation and has become a back-patting excercise for the Beeb and the writers and producers who are involved. The first series’ success became the actual focus, much to the detriment of the subsequent programme content.

When I went to see Miss Jenkins in an outdoor concert a couple of years back (see – I don’t just like rock music), she seemed to concentrate on her name-dropping and dress-changing rather than the actual content of her repertoire. It was all a big PR excercise rather than for the sake of the music. Style over content. No wonder she’s been signed up for this…

 BBC News – Katherine Jenkins to star in Christmas Doctor Who.

Oh, and did I mention the music in Doctor Who is still way too loud?

That’s from a photo I took the other day for a local website. Those Weeping Willow trees by the Wensum Lodge looked a treat – I thought they were a good choice to showcase one of Fakenham’s prettiest views. But look at the same trees now…

They’ve been hacked back to stumps!

As you can imagine, I do love a gadget. I’ve just ordered one of these – it’s an all-singing, all-dancing HTC Desire Android phone.

Yes, I know there’s a new iPhone coming out. Yes, I know the old model iPhones will probably be discounted soon. I just didn’t want an iPhone. The user interface is great (I’ve had an iPod Touch for ages) but I don’t like the way Apple control the way you use things, locking you in to their closed system.

The HTC uses Google’s Android operating system. It has a 5 megapixel camera, a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display (lovely and clear) and a pretty speedy 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. The reviews of the phone are outstanding, so I’m looking forward to it arriving next week – expect a few photos from it on this blog soon.

It’s my first contract phone for years and is replacing my old Samsung SGH-E900 on T-mobile PAYG (the worst phone I’ve ever owned). On the contract I chose, it cost £99 but Orange knocked £50 off the price for me and as i’d ordered it through the Quidco website, I get £50 cashback too - making the phone effectively free.

Back of the net!

Last night, I got a phonecall from my mate Sean. He’s a bit of a sci-fi film fiend and fancied seeing the latest Iron Man 2 movie. Being brought up on Marvel comics, I liked that idea too, so I walked into town and met him at the Hollywood Cinema at about 8. We bought our tickets and waited outside for a little while for the previous show to finish (it was still quite warm yesterday evening).

When we sat down we had the place to ourselves, so chose our spot at the back in the middle (Oi – no sniggering about back seats in the cinema you lot!) and settled down for the film. We really enjoyed the movie – a good bit of fun and nicely done SFX. Downey gives the part an eccentric edge and doesn’t take things too seriously.

Unfortunately, the screening was very slightly spoiled by some ‘scratches’ on the screen. It looked like the whole movie had been dragged across the ground, with intermittent diagonal white lines appearing whenever the picture was dark. However, on our way out, the guy on the desk came over to apologise for that (they’d spotted it too, obviously) and offered us free tickets for another film.

That’s the way to do it!  Two pretty impressed customers who’ll definitely be back soon – thanks, Hollywood Cinemas. I’m definitely glad I bought that Gold Card.

The bluebells in Foxley Wood today.

Do any of my older readers see a similarity between erstwhile climate change secretary and Labour MP Ed Milliband and the late comedian Bernie Winters?

Here’s a 1960′s snap of Ed and his brother Mike, who were a comedy double act at the time. That’s an uncanny parallel with Bernie, whose brother David Milliband makes up a comedy double act which will soon be running in the Labour leadership battle.

In my previous post I mentioned a new project I’ve been working on. It’s now ready to inflict on release to the general public. NorthNorfolk.net is a website where you can publish free press releases and events listings for Norfolk businesses and community projects.

Involved in Norfolk community projects? If you have a school play, village meeting, charity fundraiser, free music gig – in fact anything non-profitmaking that you’re organizing, you can get free publicity.

Do you run a company or business in Norfolk? Create and publish a press release completely free. It’s free advertising and raises your profile to a local audience. There’s help on the website to get you started and it’s an easy process. Profit-making events listings are accepted too – beer festivals, music venues, sports events, business seminars and the like. 

Are you a journalist, media professional or blogger? A simple and free signup process will enable you to get new PR and events listings sent direct to your inbox. Keep in touch with relevant local news stories you may not have noticed before without lifting a finger! All listings will be published on Facebook and Twitter too – so you may prefer to keep informed via one of those methods.

So that’s it in a nutshell. Having seen businesses and organizations struggle to get their Norfolk news out to the public for years, I thought I’d do something about it by creating a ‘one-stop shop’. I’d welcome any feedback you have too. Fill yer boots!