BB’s goal of abandoning the high street, and indeed never going outside again, in favour of online shopping has almost come to fruition with the ability to buy socks online at Blueshire - for all your HJ Hall Diamond Argyll needs. We recommend the cotton intarsia style (HJ 7406). Minimium order three items, no delivery charge. The site seems to require IE to make the “Shopping Basket” link visible but heck, warm feet trump crap browsers. (Apologies to anyone who found this page while looking for a way to make IE work with a SOCKS proxy.)

You’ve stopped believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy so isn’t it time you gave up on the Quick Fix too? Especially at that price.

I never learn. Despite the pain that Red Hat/Fedora upgrades typically cause, I still take each one, like a well-aimed kick in the teeth to a rugby player. And Fedora Core 2 is the best yet, with results that rival or even surpass your typical Microsoft update. At the end of installation, the score was:

• no sound;
• slow web downloads;
• no freakin’ mouse!

I have great difficulty with point ‘n’ shoot cameras. Give me a chunky automatic SLR with lots of fiddly buttons and dials and a thick wodge of user manual to go, and I’ll happily figure out how to use all the functions and then run off some - arguably - acceptable pics. But pass me a little 35mm compact and say “Just push that button”, and we’re both likely to experience disappointment when the prints come back from the lab, as many foolish and trusting Japanese tourists have doubtless discovered. “Call yourself a photographer?!” (Erm…no. Sorry.)

Read James C. Liu’s blog entry on the difficulties of tech management. And if you don’t understand it, BB has some coloured sticky notes here that might help.

“The critical issue is that this is a memorial. I don’t think any responsible person would want to see people allowing their dogs in it.”
- Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary and “Parkie”

BB can’t think of a more suitable memorial for a member of the royal family than a bit of wetness and an attitude of “Keep off, nasty proles with your smelly dogs!” Presumably an exception will be made if Her Maj’s corgis wish to splash around in the water (once the royal footmen have waded around and removed all the nappies floating in it - she so loved children, didn’t she?).

Preparing for Emergencies - We’ll Tell You What You Need To Know

This leaflet contains important advice on how to protect yourself, your family and your property in the event of an emergency caused by Terrorism. Remember that we are constantly under the threat of such attacks and that therefore, this advice should be followed at all times.

“Yes sir, how can I possibly help you?”
“Hello, yes, I was wondering if you had any books on a British prime minister…?”
“Ooh, we’ve got lots of books on prime ministers, sir!”
“Yeeesss, doubtless you have but I’m having a little trouble locating this particular one. Perhaps you can help me out: Victorian politician, Liberal, begins with ‘G’…?”

“My new rule of thumb is that absolutely no Internet facing service be run in anything but a non-global zone. Anything less is being reckless.”
- Jarod Jenson, Aeysis

OK, right, that’s the new paradigm, is it? Let’s see if we can make IBM WebSphere Application Server run inside a non-global zone then.

They do their best to hide it away, but here it is:
HP Planet Partners printing supplies return and recycling programme for the UK.

Home users can order up to 10 free pre-paid envelopes for the return of used ink cartridges. BB has just put an order in (after all, HP’s advanced technology means that lots of used cartridges are generated). It would be nice if HP tracked the returns and sent a discount voucher after every ten or so.