Ooh, at last, something from the movie industry that is both progressive and good! Presumably in an attempt to both halt the many unauthorised film clips available, and perhaps monetise it along the way, Paramount have opened up a site that allows you to select a clip from a movie, and purchase the licence to it. From the article where I learned of such things: Paramount will initially restrict use …

The story is good, although I always worry when a book starts with a long list of characters, setting up the group for the rest of the pages. I am always concerned I'll never remember them all, but of course, a good writer makes that problem go away, as Crichton inevitably does. It feels like one of those books you never really get too involved with, as it just follows the events as they happen, thus making it a page turner without you being emotionally invested.

I'm always concerned when writers bring in secondary characters in a plot, only as a device to continue the series onwards. The worst example of this is the Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt novels, where some long-lost children were discovered just as the main character was getting on a bit. Conveniently, they both have the adventurous spirit that he does and the writing can continue!

Suddenly, over the festive holiday period, I have become obsessed with accessories. I have never been interested in that kind of thing before - except for an ill-fated venture into necklaces and nail varnish when I was in my teens. Since then, the only accessories I have really been bothered about are a ring from my dad, an engagement ring and a wedding ring. Roll on Christmas, and all of …

I have returned with another episode of Media. Future. Change, catching up with some of the news from the past few weeks. Google have been dominating things recently, with lofty goals and tons of new products, but there's plenty more to discuss in this episode. It's down to the user to be sensible Coming up today we'll discuss how you can celebrate New Year at home, why Switzerland isn't a …

Try five new foods Complete the archives of this site Make that fish video Reach Film Watch 50 Go outside more Okay, the last one isn't exactly quantifiable, and that is the key to achievable goals, but still, it's an aim. I'm keen to hear your resolutions, if you have any.

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart... But the very next day, you broke it. Oops.

Mashable has a brief article about a new advert taken out in the USA Today newspaper from chewing gum company Trident. Supposedly the tweets were discovered naturally, rather than the writers being sponsored to talk about the gum, and everybody was consulted to make sure they approved being included in the ad itself. A bizarre concept of micro-blogging turning back into print media.

For a long time, the Christmas Number One single in the UK has been rubbish. I don't remember the last time there was a decent song at the top, but then again, there haven't really been an enormous amount of worthy festive songs released recently anyway. For the past few years, the Yuletide number has been dominated by the Simon Cowell sponsored X Factor winner, and that's usual a cover …

The BBC released some statistics to coincide with the iPlayer's second birthday ahead of the festive season. Some facts: Average of 5 million unique users a week iPlayer on mobiles peaks on weekday nights between 7pm and midnight The top streaming series for the year (Top Gear) generated more than 1.5 million streams, whilst the top radio was just 183,000. Supposedly Mac users prefer comedies, while PC users prefer dramas. …

After the success of the chocolate covered pretzels, my mother and I decided that baking mince pies would be the next challenge. It is Christmas, after all. After a bit of a delay as we tried to locate some mincemeat (silly supermarket two for one offers resulting in empty shelves), and we were ready to go. Now, I cook and I bake and I enjoy it, but I'm not so …

I was determined that my Etsy purchase would be a one off, because despite all the proof that Etsy can be addictive, I'm so not into gathering stuff. Oops. Here's what I got from my second Etsy delivery: This is a nifty little keyring type device that has space for tissues (a free pack came with the delivery as in the photo), plus a lipstick, or in my case some …

I'm not sure how long this has been around for, but I noticed today that YouTube have a new section called Shows. This is an expansion of the idea that broadcasters and networks have been signing up and posting clips of their TV programmes to YouTube in an attempt to a) stop people ripping their stuff and b) still use the site as a marketing tool. Now, though, there is …

When I first gave up Christmas, I was so anti-everything-even-slightly-resembling-the-C-word that it was a lot of effort. I blogged about it a lot, I made rules, I set up a website, I wrote articles and guidelines about how to avoid the festive season. It was exhausting and a lot of it made me very angry. Everyone has to have a cause, I guess. Now, with the benefit of several years …

For a while now, Mr C and I have been engrossed in the Spotify world, only just managing to stop from signing up for the premium service to get rid of the pesky ads. It is too much money and not quite worth it, but only just. Now though, I'm starting to wonder what we ever saw in it. The fact you can play music from many different genres, decades, …

Browsing through Kottke, I stumbled across this interesting item about a potential future for the magazine industry. It links through to the original article, and a brilliant video. It's a little dry, but the production is great and the concept is fascinating. Things I found of note: The idea of people enjoying completing a magazine, as a sense of satisfaction rather than neverending blogs I know it's only a prototype …

After causing a bit of a kerfuffle with my harsh criticism of the special effects in The Terminator, I was intrigued to see the iTunes Film homepage feature some CGI Trailblazers. Now, we have already established that I am not an expert on movies, but some of these made me ponder. Terminator 2 - I'm saying nothing! Aliens - I've seen this one, although I don't remember it enormously. I …

We have long said that Leo Laporte and his TWiT network is an inspiration to us, and this video goes behind the scenes of what Leo is trying to do. I found it via the Inside TWiT blog, and they call it the best video about TWiT ever. Could well be. Worth a look even if you don't like Leo, as there's some interesting thoughts about net neutrality as well.

I saw this story ages ago, was going to blog about it but promptly forgot. A father looking for his long lost daughter bought a domain of her name and set up a simple message saying: When you read this, please send me an email. Of course, nothing happened for a long time, but eventually the girl in question, April Becker, googled herself and found the site. She emailed the …

Despite the fact that this film is so very dated, and the special effects are nothing to write home about, it did strike a chord with me. The time travel element was good. However, I got a bit bored by the 'just won't die' element of the Terminator. A bit like the slasher films when they always get back up again. Still, I'll put Terminator 2 on my list.

Rumour has it that the lovely Franck will be at Autosport International in January, racing in a charity karting event. All the information you need: David Brabham will be reunited with his Le Mans 24 Hours winning teammate Alex Wurz and fellow Peugeot Sport stars Franck Montagny and Nicolas Minassian as they join the Celebrity Karting Challenge primarily in aid of Malaria No More UK at Autosport International, on Friday …

Mr C is often surprised, no, actually, the word is aghast, at the number of podcast episodes I have to listen to and how far back some of them are dated. I recently tried to play him a TWiT episode from March. Actually, even I think that is a bit extreme, but in some cases, it doesn't really matter how old the information is. I listen to Farming Today, and …

A couple of pictures today: Credit: Brooke/Flickr Lots of pandas: Credit: May Wong/Flickr Plus, I can't embed it but check out this picture of a lady hugging a panda. I could not be more jealous. Finally, my dad forwarded this news story to me about pandas calling for mates. I refuse to believe that pandas "chirp" and "bleat." I don't know what noise they do make, but bleating? Really?

Reading it a second time was just as good as the first... to start with. It's been a long time since I read it and we know my memory isn't great, but halfway through the book, I suddenly remembered who the murderer was, which spoiled it a little. I wasn't 100% on the details though, so I kept on reading, and enjoyed it anyway. Once again, I recommend this book, although the way some of the dialogue is written makes it a bit hard to digest at time. I think it may be oversimplified slightly, to compensate for the number of characters in the book, but naturally, it soon whittles down!

Naturally, Christmas is all about chocolate, but as it is hard to consume the stuff via the internet, I have been looking at alternative advent calendars. There are quite a lot to choose from. Firstly, a totally selfish plug first, we have the Sidepodcast F1 Advent Calendar 2009. If you're slightly interested in Formula 1, each day of advent there will be a three minute podcast running through the key …

Being an F1 fan, it would be impossible not to want to read a book by the legendary commentator. I managed to get my hands on a copy and settled down with interest. Unfortunately, I found it quite slow going. Half the book is taken up with his previous life as an advertising executive, which is somewhat interesting. The rest is a whistle stop tour through his life as an F1 broadcaster.

I'm not sure what compelled me to read this book, other than I found it at my mother-in-law's house, picked it up and never put it down again. I didn't think I'd seen the film, but later I described a couple of scenes to Mr C, who confirmed they were from the film. I did not recall the story though, or how the scenes linked together - I was sure it was all about Lector, but really there's a whole other crime to be investigated.

Some more pretty graphics to display those lovely new media stats. This time, the iPlayer and how it is growing: Read more and view the full image here.

I enjoyed this film a lot, and even though it broke the two hour mark I wasn't bored at any point. I don't know much about karate, and I don't think I really learned a lot either, but next time I wash my car, I'll know I'm in training.

I've been hearing about the Microsoft Courier but not really been paying attention. It first came to my attention as a competitor to the still-fictional-at-the-moment Apple tablet, but from what I've read, it's not meant to be a tablet computer, it's something different. I recently saw a video of the potential uses for the Courier and was blown away. There are also pictures and more info here. It looks really …

You're all very well aware that I am marginally obsessed with pandas, but it's become increasingly obvious recently that I am also fond of a few other animals... and they all begin with P! I don't know why it is, but animals that begin with that letter seem to have more of a chance of getting my adoration. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, as I like cows …

I saw this stairs video recently but wasn't really sure what it was about. Then I discovered The Fun Theory - an initiative from Volkswagen. The idea is to make things fun to change people's behaviour for the better. They have three examples on the site, but are running a competition for submissions and ideas, with a monetary prize. You can see some of the submitted entries, and vote on …

Just a quick note to say that the game I previously recommended to you I Love Traffic is now available on the iPhone/iPod Touch. I commandeered Mr C's Touch to purchase and play the game and it's as brilliant as ever. It's exactly the same concept as the online game, only this time there are 40 levels instead of 20. Considering I am technically still stuck on the last level …

You'll remember how excited I was when I received my first Etsy purchase in the post, and welcomed Mr Panda to the home? I showed him to my mother who was impressed. "Why don't you make him a girlfriend?" she said. "You could get the materials from the craft shop, some felt, some stuffing, a bow to make it a girl. It would be really easy to do." "What you're …

I have been holding off blogging about the Renault talk in the hopes that they might actually announce something, but it doesn't look like there will be anything forthcoming for a while. So, the talk is that Franck confirmed he had spoken to Renault about a potential seat with the team next year. Add to that the speculation that the team will want to rebrand and reinforce their French heritage, …

I've seen this before but it was even better the second time round - whether that has to do with watching along with many others I don't. Pixar movies are always so finely crafted, they are a real treat.

I watched the BBC dramatisation of Enid Blyton's life yesterday, cleverly titled "Enid." I thought it was a really good piece, and Helena Bonham Carter was fabulous - I adore the subtle aging process that I have only noticed now, watching back the trailer. I've seen and heard some comments from people concerned that the documentary has shattered their illusions of the books they read as a child. I can't …

Over on Sidepodcast, we featured a guest post recently from Dan Brunell, who wrote about the need for quality reporting on the web. I highly recommend it, but to sum up for the purposes of this post, the internet has made reporting all things F1 cheaper but also cheapened the reporting. As we start to understand how the internet works, we will begin to realise that paying for quality is …

From Mint.com: View the full image for more stats.

Here are just a few things that struck me about the latest Doctor Who episode, The Water of Mars. If you haven't seen it yet, and you are able, it's up on the iPlayer already. It only finished 15 minutes ago! That is the first time in a long time, if you don't count F1 coverage, that I have watched live TV - even if I was streaming it on …

It's all about Doctor Who today, naturally, as we eagerly await the second Tennant special that leads up to the two-part festive end-of-doctor-ten story. I can't wait. While the time drags on, though, I discovered that some of the classic episodes are available to watch for free on YouTube. Full episodes provided by BBC Worldwide (channel no longer available). There are also other series on there, such as Dead Ringers, …

More than a year ago, I blogged about the cute and squishable Chumby, an internet gadget that seemed to just be a widget display showing you things like the weather, email and suchlike. I never bought one because at first it wasn't available in the UK, then the option to ship it internationally became available but the gadget was just that little bit too expensive. Now they have come out …

A few months ago, I posted my hastily edited video of Red Arrows footage, and I thought I did a pretty good job following those speedy little planes around the sky. I love the Red Arrows. It's bizarre because I do not like to fly, everything about the idea of being in the sky fills me with dread, I have nightmares about plane crashes that I've clearly made up, but …

In my recent post about breakfast, I inadvertently mentioned hangover cures, and a couple of comments picked up on that. That got me wondering what other weird and wonderful things people use to clear their hangovers. Let's be responsible about this though: drinking isn't smart or clever. Don't do it. Except if you've had a really bad day. Then you can be excused. Ah-hem, so... I mentioned that my hangover …

Never mind hoping for a single laugh out loud moment, Mr C and I laughed throughout the entire movie. We quoted it to each other for an entire day, and then we chuckled some more. I've forgotten it now, but would quite easily watch it over again.

I rarely have breakfast. What fascinates me about that first meal is that there are select things you are supposed to have, and that's all. For lunch, you can have anything in the world, although it is meant to be relatively light. Sandwiches with any filling, a hundred different types of salads, soup, pasta, and smaller versions of main meals. For dinner, the possibilties are endless! Breakfast though, it tends …

I was in discussion with my mother a while back and for some reason we were talking about racing cars. Imagine that! Anyway, we were talking about the olden days, when they used to have driving gloves, leather hats and goggles. I pointed out that I do enjoy those phrases for things that aren't the way we do things anymore. Hmm. There must be a word for that because it …

Franck has returned to Le Mans this weekend, for a Peugeot Sport Meeting. I've never heard of this event before, but it looks like it's all different types of Peugeot cars and drivers head to the track to entertain the fans. Franck won't be in the 908, but is still happy to drive, and will be sharing the wheel with Minassian and Sarrazin. If you're lucky enough to be near …

Here is the fourth episode of Media. Future. Change. It's taken a while to come to fruition, so it is packed with interesting news snippets. With Formula 1 heading into the off season, you might find a few more of these episodes floating around soon. This is what goes for news these days This week we're going to talk about a USB stick you might want, Google taking over the …

One of the shows we do over on Sidepodcast is called the Parade Lap and features Mr C and myself in conversation with the fabulous Alex Andronov for an hour before a Grand Prix begins. It's the kind of show that feeds off the audience - we ask for predictions and feedback, we play games and music, and it is generally a bit of fun and chaos before the racing …