Sometimes, as holiday cover at work, I am in charge of changing the backup tapes for the system. You'll find me huddled in the dark corner of a server room, standing in front of a rack of hardware, eyeing up the blinking lights and wires, and tapping away on the keyboard. It's like being in Mission Impossible. It's wonderful.

Out of the Blue has been axed. Well, that's out of the blue. Ha. Sorry, couldn't resist. If the numbers in that story are to be believed, chances are you won't have even heard of this programme, and now you probably never will. But I want to take a closer look at what happened, because it makes for an interesting story. The problem Here is how to systematically undermine a …

It's hula-hooping, right? Who knew that hula-hooping was actually hard work? Okay, so you've probably guessed it: I am now the proud owner of a Wii Fit. And it's brilliant. At the moment, I'm still suffering the effects of a cold and wintry three-day stay in a tent, and can't put the maximum effort into a routine. However, from what I know already, it's brilliant. I'm not entirely sure how …

It started out well for Franck, as he finished the first practice session on top, although only by a tenth of a second. He then went on to hold a provisional pole during the qualifying sessions, but ultimately finished seventh. Afterwards, however, two Audi drivers were given penalties and pushed back to ninth on the grid - which helped our boy somewhat! Overall, Montagny finished 6th, and three laps down, …

Having performed so well in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, Montagny has been snapped up for the American Le Mans series for the remainder of the season. Now, I'm a bit late with news, and the race this weekend at Lime Rock sees Montagny teaming up with Marco Andretti but it looks like he will have various team mates throughout the season. The new lineup is somewhat unexpected, as …

Disneyland is the host of a new "Home of the Future" - an interactive tour through a house chock full of technology you can only dream about. The Gizmodo story has tons of pictures, and CNET have a fab video. It is quite possibly the coolest thing ever. The best part, in my eyes, is the wardrobe mirror thing. Even though I am not your typical girl, and most days …

Wimbledon is always on at the same time every year, and yet this year, it completely slipped my mind. At one stage in my life, it was the sport I followed. Much easier than F1, as it only spanned two weeks of the year. I even created a massive wall chart to follow the progress of players throughout one of the championships. It was gaudy, but I liked it. This …

Have you heard about the "Awesome Highlighter"? As Web 2.0 gets bigger and better, it seems as though people are always trying to find ways to do online things that they have previously manually done on paper. I know that seems obvious, but you would think it was impossible to replicate the act of marking something with a highlighter for future use. Apparently not. Check out awesomehighlighter.com (link retired). Like …

You know it was Friday 13th last week? (And yes, I had a bad day.) Did you know that the subject warrants its own page on Wikipedia? Firstly, Friday the 13th is observed by many, many countries. But in a few, Greece and Romania, for example, it is Tuesday 13th. In Italy, it is Friday 17th. This totally blows the superstition out of the water, because it’s roots are in …

Oops. Turns out that when I said this year was his best result, I was wrong. And my only excuse is that clearly I cannot read. To make amends for my error, here is the full run-down of Franck's achievements at Le Mans. | Year | Team | Result | |---------|---------|---------| | 1998 | Courage | 5th | | 1999 | DAMS | DNF | | 2000 | DAMS | …

Franck did an amazing job. He started second, and at one point was driving so fast he could catch the leaders at four seconds a lap. He overtook the front runners to lead the race at one point, and then made the big mistake of handing the car over to Klien. A couple of laps in, Klien through the car in the gravel. Still, we have to be impressed that …

Top five reasons the Mac is winning me over Installing things is too easy. Flickr Uploader is a thousand times better than on a PC. The Mac has approved software lists. I'm starting to get used to (and like) the fact that things are open without having an actual window open. It took a long time, but now I'm adjusted, it's a plus. I can make enhanced podcasts. Top five …

Peugeot continued their fine form from the first round of qualifying, and took the first three spots on the grid. Franck’s car is second, behind Stephane Sarrazin, and ahead of Marc Gene. The finishing times were over three seconds quicker than Audi. The full qualifying results can be viewed here. Unfortunately, Montagny’s team mate Ricardo Zonta was having a go in the car when he was involved in an incident. …

First qualifying for Le Mans 24 Hours took place last night (thanks to Andrea in the comments for the heads up). Our Peugeot boys were on top form, taking the top three spots, with main rival Audi taking the next three: | Pos | Class | Drivers | Team | Car | Time | Gap | |---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------| | 1 | LMP1 | Lamy, Sarrazin, Wurz | Team Peugeot Total | …

I’m trying to quit Coke Zero and it’s killing me. Two weeks now, with a couple of lapses. Apparently Diet Coke is the beverage of choice for geeks, but it can’t be good to consume as much as I used to. How long before I stop thinking about it, though?

Leo Laporte is turning his life into an internet show. But this isn’t like Justin TV, this is podcasting at its finest. He joined in the group of people who were live streaming themselves recording a show, which meant you could interact with people via the chatroom and it was all real time. Then he took that idea and brought it to a whole new level. Now he broadcasts live …

You can now buy or rent films on iTunes in the UK, and there’s quite a lot to choose from. Considering how few TV shows there were when that was first introduced on the UK store, I’m quite impressed. There are some questionable decisions on the part of Apple, when you look at the HD side of things. You can’t buy an HD film and you can only rent one …

Peugeot turned up for the test day this past weekend, with the Sporting Director Michel Barge, summing up the day for the team: "We have prepared extremely thoroughly for this monumental competition. We have raced at Sebring and in the three rounds of the 2008 Le Mans Series, including Spa where we fielded two complete driver line-ups, not to mention an extremely busy programme of testing since the flag came …

AjaxTrans Too cool a tool not to bookmark.

Been browsing through the iTunes top 100 songs for a while. Not planning on buying, just seeing if I'm missing anything. Having my head so buried in the podcasting cloud, I barely have time to listen to the radio anymore. The answer was not much, by the way, although there were a few surprises along the way. What the hell is Neil Diamond doing in the top 100 downloaded songs …

I haven't talked about drop.io over here yet, although we've been raving about it over on Sidepodcast. It's a relatively new service that I heard from someone who heard it from net@nite. The idea is pretty simple. Sign up for an account, get 100MB for free, and start dropping. If you open it up, anyone can put in links, files and notes. The files could be pictures, audio, video, it's …

We had the previous tech dilemma of whether to buy Photoshop to help me be more interested in pictures, but not really being able to justify buying Photoshop because I don't take enough pictures. Here's another. I want to blog more on Smarter Than Your Average, I have things to say about the state of the web and I want to share them with you. But I find that I …

The caption competition is back Should be entitled: How to be funny.

Exam papers had answers on back What.The.Hell? *** Animal Utility Clips Oh, I want some of these. Especially the cow. I'm always getting told off for having wires all over my desk. These would solve that problem. *** Vandals in attack at Stonehenge "English Heritage said souvenir hunting was once a legitimate practice and chisels would be handed out to people visiting the stones." Crazy. *** Podcasts prove break from …

Design revamp for '$100 laptop' I always thought the old one looked like a cartoon, and whilst aimed at kids, I found it quite off-putting. The new one looks beautiful. *** Twitter: Something Is Technically Wrong Well, I gave up already. *** Gyllenhaal confirmed for 'Prince of Persia' Firstly, I didn't know there was a film. Secondly, that Gemma Arterton is everywhere right now, and I still haven't seen her …

Coldplay's piano gift for school They're nice boys really.

Whilst the demise of Super Aguri is both sad and a seemingly interminable story, the highlight of reading the articles for me, is the odd mention of Franck. He drove for SA briefly in 2006, replacing Yuji Ide and being replaced by Sakon Yamamoto. Montagny was third driver initially, and got the chance as the FIA believed Ide wasn’t necessarily experienced enough to be a full driver. Franck raced for …

Apologies for not writing anything about Franck after the event, but he took part in the A1GP race at Brands Hatch at the beginning of this month. He didn’t do too badly, finishing 8th and then 5th in the two races, but it wasn’t enough for Team France to finish higher than fourth in the championship. Switzerland took the title, with New Zealand and Great Britain behind. Speaking afterwards, Franck …

TWiT Live Update I keep meaning to blog about Leo and his incredible live streaming plans. For now, this will do.

Olinda - a new radio For some reason, this strikes me as very bizarre. *** 7 Skills Every Woman Should Master How long do we have to get these down? :)

Thinking of Having Kids? Do this 11 step program first! Any advice that has "Buy an octopus..." in it, is good in my book.

Elizabeth Arden Color Intrigue Shakes Off The Catherine Zeta-Jones From Catherine Zeta-Jones — StyleFrizz Photoshop is scary. *** Start a Business - Five First Steps Something tells me it's a bit more complicated than this, but it helps to start somewhere.

Standing versus Sitting I'd try it, but sitting is soooo good.

Mevio Dumps PodShow Name & Distances Itself From User-Generated Content Never believed in user generated content?? That is an untruth if ever I heard one. *** Willis to play Murray Walker in F1 biopic? This is beyond bizarre. *** Our Videos at One Year: Facts and Figures More lovely statistics. *** Major oil pipeline to close down Don't.Panic.Buy

Stuntman hurt in Bond car crash What is going on out there?

Ovation for Darius's Rhett Butler I didn't know this was what he's doing now. A step up from Popstars, eh? Still, if the critics hate it, it's bound to be good. *** McDonald's savours designer look Wow. How much do I want a scarf with a big fat M on it? *** Driver fined for Bond car crash Right, sorry, isn't he a stunt driver? How can it be dangerous …

For a while now, I’ve had del.icio.us set up to post whatever links I bookmark during the day to post on this blog at 1am. I hope that’s okay. The thing is, I look through a lot of links and I want to share them with everyone (particularly the other half, otherwise I’d spend all day emailing him URLs). I don’t usually have enough to say about each that it …

When The Archers became available as a podcast, I was excited, simply from a podcasting fan’s point of view. Then I started listening, and was intrigued by the way radio soap is put together. The little things fascinated me – having to say character’s names more than you would in real life because they’re not always distinguishable by their voices, managing to make an entire 13 minutes listenable, despite very …

I know, I know, this blog has been about television far too much recently. The problem is that at the moment, it’s the only other non-Sidepodcast thing I’m interested in. ITV hasn’t really featured in my thoughts recently, but now two things have happened that sort of cancel each other out. Let me explain. The Good ITV shows are now available on iTunes. Get your hands on Cold Feet (yay!) …

As I mentioned briefly in the previous post about Franck’s successful outing at Long Beach, it looks like FKM had a confirmed Champ Car drive for 2009. Before the race, he said: It was disappointing to have a deal three weeks before the season, and then nothing. But we've kept very close with Forsythe and we have a very good relationship. Maybe there will be a chance to do IndyCar …

I can only apologise for not posting this news immediately, it is definitely worth a blog post or two! In his one and only Champ Car race, Franck managed to finish 2nd with an inspired drive. But let’s start at the beginning. It appears that Franck had a confirmed Champ Car drive, which is why he lined up on the grid in Long Beach this past weekend. This was his …

Podcasting News » LonelyGirl15 Creators Get $5 Million For EQAL Startup I both love and hate LonelyGirl15 at the same time. It's an interesting mix! *** Podcasting News » Audience For Audio, Video Podcasts Way Up Everyone loves a good set of stats. *** Quelle horreur! How can the French Eurovision song be in English? It irks me when songs have both English and their native language in there. Pick …

I've been away this week, and missed out on all the action of last weekend, which is typical because Franck was... both good and bad. We had a moment to celebrate when he hit the top of the time sheets in the final Free Practice session, just ahead of favourites Switzerland. | Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps | |---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------| | 1 | Franck Montagny …

Vine to take over Points of View An interesting choice. *** BBC NEWS | Technology | BBC announces Nintendo Wii deal Coooool. *** Podcasting News » New Adobe Media Player Could Change Internet Television Looks very swish. I'm an Adobe Air fan, so interested to see how this goes down. *** Showbiz - News - Elton signs up for 'Phantom' sequel - Digital Spy No, don't do it.

Seth's Blog: Write like a blogger Surely everybody does have a blog, don't they? *** Podcasting News » Watch Twice As Many YouTube Videos I just have one question - why? *** EastEnders - Soap Scoop - 'Enders begin filming in Weymouth - Digital Spy Bit different from their original plan of Spain. No way the weather will hold.

Thanks to Andrea in the comments, we now know that Franck has been snapped up by A1 Team France to take part in a couple of A1 GP races. There are more details here (link retired), but FKM will be driving in Shanghai on the 11th-13th April, and at Brands Hatch on 2nd-4th May. I was tempted to visit A1 GP when I saw some footage from it at Autosport …

Space truck's big moment arrives I find it amazing that it's going to do it all by itself and "Ground controllers and the station's astronauts will not get involved unless there is a problem." Also, the live tracking at the bottom is cool. *** Seth's Blog: Waiting until the last minute "In a nutshell: don't."

Amazon.co.uk: America Unchained: A Freewheeling Roadtrip In Search of Non-Corporate USA: Dave Gorman: Books Buy it, buy it now. *** Moving on to new projects - Veronica Belmont (link retired) But Mahalo Daily is so good... *** Podcasting News » Free Skype Call Recorder Where was this when we needed it? *** Amazon Payments Account Management (link retired) Earlier I told you to buy a book - now I'm telling …

It looks to me like Franck is going to debut and finish up his Champ Car career in one and the same race. According to this story (link retired), Franck is one of 13 drivers confirmed to appear at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. I was not aware of this, and I'm finding it hard to find out any more information. If anyone else knows more, let me know!

Daisy Whitney » Blog Archive » New Media Minute 3.31.08 An interesting look at the demographics, but doesn't this just prove that you can never really rely on stats THAT much? *** US TV - News - Ioan Gruffudd joins US drama pilot - Digital Spy Mmmm, yum.