My new blog is here

If Benny Hinn's ministry doesn't work out, perhaps he should take up pro wrestling. This video shows a certain aptitude for it. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I find it quite amusing that an advert asking us not to accept fakery uses fake software. Heh. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Back in the late nineties, it would have taken a miracle for us geek people to get anyone to take the concept of "Internet freedom" seriously. Now the BBC publish articles with the phrase in the headline. If you want to understand what Internet unfreedom is, here you goPermanent link to this item in the archive.

Taner Edis: "It is, after all, possible to be a critic of Islam without frothing at the mouth in the process." (Prof Edis' reading list would be greatly appreciated). Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Finally, someone has built the Bluetooth headset I've been looking for (as previewed on GBTV and at at the gadgets weblog). If anyone gets one of these, please tell me how it works - especially if you are using it with a video iPod and Motorola Razr. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Richard MacManus has a post up comparing TechMeme and the newly improved TailRank. TailRank has one major advantage for me - a mobile mode. It also tends to load quicker on my GPRS connection. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Wikipedia article of the day: Project XanaduPermanent link to this item in the archive.

Quick List Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I've finally started using a feature that's been peering out at me for a while - YouTube's QuickList function.

It basically allows you to make a video queue on YouTube. If they want to make it absolutely perfect, they just need to allow me to reorder the list in JavaScript.

One thing that is particularly useful about the QuickList is that I can hunt out videos on YouTube while on my GPRS connection, add them to my QuickList and then watch them when I'm using a wifi connection.

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Banking 2.0 Permanent link to this item in the archive.

My bank - NatWest - doesn't support Firefox 2.0. It's one of the few sites that I have to use Safari to access, oddly enough. I expect that User Agent Switcher will solve my problem on that front.

My bank also doesn't integrate my credit card stuff in to my online account. What a wasted opportunity. I've had so many instances when I've been waiting for my credit card bill to arrive so I can pay the balance off - so that I can use it (usually when travelling).

I wish there was some kind of secure, open method for financial transactions (perhaps a very strictly encrypted XML-RPC system) - so that I could basically have something as simple and useful as an RSS aggregator to handle all my financial transactions.

It looks like there's a Perl module called Finance::Bank::Natwest (search for your bank on the CPAN website, you may find something similar). From the readme, it looks like I can get back details of my available balance. A big safety warning is definitely due though - and the author provides one:

This is code for online banking, and that means your money, and that means BE CAREFUL. You are encouraged, nay, expected, to audit the source of this module yourself to reassure yourself that I am not doing anything untoward with your banking data

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HomeTom MorrisOpiumfield

Last modified: Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 10:41 AM.

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