Aargh!

Sorry everyone, but my iBook has finally died! I'm writing this at an Apple Store, so I've gotta be brief. If there are no more updates for a while, or you don't get emails from me then that's the reason. I'll try to be back ASAP!

Why can't things just work?

Time for a Dilbert-style "Gaaa!" I got a new mobile phone for Christmas - a Motorola V3 RAZR, mainly because my old Nokia was just embarrassing, a camera phone would come in handy every now and then and because I really wanted the theme to Battle of the Planets as my ringtone. So I thought, OK this phone looks good, it does MP3 ringtones, Bob's your uncle.

So I got the phone and thought, I'll just hook it up to my iBook with a USB cable, and transfer the files across. Nope. The phone is recognized as a USB device, but doesn't mount as a volume on the desktop. iSync sort of worked - it dumped a few random phone numbers on the phone with garbled names attached, but that wasn't too much of a problem, as my address book on my iBook is so out-of-date it's got Abraham Lincoln's IM name in it. The internet basically said that wasn't going to work, so I thought I should try the Bluetooth route.

I went to Argos and bought a cheapie Bluetooth-USB adaptor and plugged it in, thinking that that wouldn't work, but the little B logo appeared in the menu bar and the Bluetooth Set-up assistant did its thing. The iBook recognized the phone, the phone recognised the iBook, they paired up like Kylie and Jason, and everything seemed to be fine. And then I tried to send a file to the phone, but apparently the iBook was "Unable to Validate Device".

Bizarrely, I can send stuff from the phone to my iBook, but not the other way around...

No one on the internet seems to know the answer. I've even tried a program called Moto4Lin, which theoretically should allow access via a USB cable, but I keep getting a "phone is busy" error message (?).

And so the only way I can work out to get stuff onto my phone is by sticking it on the 'net and then using WAP to download it - at a cost.

And hence my "Gaaa!". But it's alright, 'cos my son Joseph has decided he'd like to eat my Bluetooth dongle...

Seasons Greetings! (aka My Favourite Present)

Hello, everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and got whatever you wanted most from Father Christmas. I had a pretty good day, got lots of lovely presents, but I think my favourite has to be the first volume of The Complete Peanuts (1950-1952), given to me by my wonderful wife!

For those of you that haven't got a scooby (and I know there are some of you out there...), "Peanuts" was the daily comic strip created and drawn by Charles M. Schultz for over 50 years, which gave the world, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Linus and Lucy. I've always been a huge fan of these strips, and have a collection of the old paperbacks (with huge gaps), but these books are truly wonderful. Every single strip is reproduced in this gorgeous hardback book with an introduction by Garrison Keillor, an in-depth essay on Schulz's career and an interview with the (late) creator. Also included is an index to each strip, so you can find out the first time that Charlie Brown wore his famous zig-zag shirt, or the first time Snoopy had a thought-bubble.

This is a fantastic book, but one that poses a bit of a problem... How the jig am I gonna afford the rest of the collection? Hmm, I may have to publish an Amozon wishlist here!

Kylie and the Daleks!

Not long to go now until the Christmas Doctor Who special, starring Kylie Minogue as a maid on the Titanic (last seen crashing into the TARDIS...), and to celebrate, the cover of the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine features our favourite pop princess posing in a slinky gold dress with one of Skaro's finest.

Apparently the issue (out 13th December) features a giant poster of Kylie anda Dalek too! Find out more here!

Oxygene hits 30!

Yes, Jean Michel Jarre's groundbreaking album has reached the grand old age of thirty! One of the original hippy-trippy electronic albums hads now been kicking around for three decades, and to celebrate, Jean Michel Jarre has, um, released it again.

OK, so the new version is a totally new "master recording" recreated using the original score and original analogue synths, to create a new version. The reocrding sounds, well, exactly the same. I'm sure some of the hardcore Jarre-nerds have spotted some diferences, but to me it just sounds nice and clean (although there are a few noisy sections (original samples?))

OXYGENE Jean Michel Jarre