I have been waiting for a decent way to sync my feeds to the desktop from Google Reader, whilst still being able to keep up with them out and about. My only problem with this so far is that I forgot I already had NNW installed, and my two sets of feeds have merged somewhat. It’ll take a while to sort, but I have a feeling it will be worth …

Here are some more of my favourite photos from our visit to the West Midlands Safari Park: As I alluded to in the previous post, the lions were quite popular, and the traffic backed up as we got towards the corner of the park where they were all resting. Considering how long it took to get near them, it's only fair to come away with a great picture like that. …

Apparently the successor to the somewhat aging USB 2.0 interface will be known as Super Speed USB. The current interface answers to the name High Speed, leaving little wiggle room for 3.0 to go bigger, but bless it for trying anyhow. I cannot wait to learn what comes next. Should we take suggestions now? I’m pitching Supercalifragilistic USB. You? Written by Mr C.

Leo has added to his ever-expanding network with a new show: This Week in Google. The first show is live, featuring Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis, with topics including Apple blocking the Google Voice app, drunk emailing, and Google Wave. Always recommend checking out a new TWiT show, even if it’s not your thing.

This past weekend, we visited the West Midland Safari Park. It hadn't actually been part of the plan, but sometimes visiting animals you wouldn't normally see is the only way to brighten up your day. There were the usual deer type animals, some buffalo, and plenty of zebras and things. It was the rhinos and elephants that we enjoyed seeing though. It was interesting that as we were going round, …

This is one of the best blog entries I've read in a while, despite the fact that it is in the form of an image, which I would normally frown upon. The topic in hand is the progression from terabytes to the next level petabytes. It took me a while to get my head around this at first. A terabyte is a thousand gigabytes, a petabyte is a thousand terabytes. …

If ever there was a need for baby pandas, it's today. A Pandogropher (Cassie)/Flickr

There are studies emerging all over the place regarding who actually uses Twitter and what they get out of it, and it seems as though the powers that be are starting to take notice. The social networking site has long since ceased to be a place where you answer the original question "What are you doing?" In fact, I just had to go and check the website itself to see …

Our hero FKM has finally opened up about Le Mans, and it makes good reading (even when murdered by Google Translate). There's a lot of detail about the broken leg, and the race itself, but the best bit comes at the end, when he talks about why he looked grumpy on the podium: Sorry ... I am not proud of this moment for my guys, for all the work we …

I recently uncovered a site called 11 Points which compiles top ten lists, but with eleven items. Some of the lists are rubbish, and the site is very garish to behold, but there are some gems to be found. I have always liked top ten lists and similar. The first podcast I subscribed to was Top of the Pods, which is sadly no longer broadcasting. The idea was a simple …

I have definitely seen this one before, perhaps at the request of Mr C, but I think it might have been late at night and I probably wasn't paying attention. I recall it as _the one where they pretended to be dead_ which is factually incorrect. I like the idea of this film, and the story is good, but my god it is hard work. All that smoke, and blue/red lighting, it gets a bit trying. Still, some of the lines are funny, and the characters are good. I'm not sure I would recommend this onwards, but I don't want my two hours back.

With all the current news and info emerging about the Apollo 11 mission - celebrating the 40th anniversary of the moon landings - it's hard not to think about space travel and what the future of it is. During a reunion of the Apollo 11 crew, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong seemed to think that Mars should be the next destination. They also didn't stop at dreaming up _visits _to …

Today, the first LibriVox book that I co-ordinated has been completed and catalogued for the wider world to enjoy. If you're at all interested in a book that follows the life of a prehistoric caveman, then I recommend The Story of Ab by Stanley Waterloo. It was quite exciting when I saw this book turn up in the new releases RSS feed, as it is with any book I'm involved …

I have seen it before but like most films, although I remember the ending, I don't quite know how it gets there. This is, as always, a great film, something of a classic, even though the flying effects are rather awful looking back. Some of the lines made me laugh out loud, which is always a good sign, and the characters are really strong (even that smarmy Superman fella).

I don't really enjoy hot drinks much, the occasional cup of tea or hot chocolate, and certainly not coffee. That being the case, I feel like I am missing out on the joy of the vast variety of mugs there are available to purchase. I was doing a little searching, for no particular reason, and came across a couple I would want, if I could justify buying them only to …

I appear to have grown a cucumber. I don't quite know how this happened. One minute it was all leaves, then the yellow flower, and suddenly there's a big, green cucumber growing. I did take some pictures last week but forgot to do anything with them, and I can tell you this vegetable has more than doubled in size over the course of a week. At either end, it looks …

I remember writing a piece for The BBC Blog when Being Human got recommissioned for BBC Three. At the time, I said: Personally, I couldn’t get through the first episode, but it was even successful on the iPlayer. The first two episodes were the most watched at the time, and the website has seen a soar in hits. Well, as it turns out, they have been repeating the first season, …

Not sure about the turn-ups, but if anyone can pull them off, FKM can. Credit: David Merrett/Flickr

Firstly, you must, must, must check out these very cuddly panda bears, and whilst you are there, you must buy me one. (Thanks to Andy for the tip.) Now, onto the good stuff: Credit: Karen/Flickr

It's been a bit quiet in Franck-land recently, but he hasn't been twiddling his thumbs, doing nothing. He was in France for a Peugeot event, and then travelled to Canada to spend some time with the Andretti Green Racing team. According to the official website: Franck was pretty excited to go to Canada to see his Dudes… His former mechanics and engineers kept in touch and the AGR team actually …

I was recently perusing the Podcasting News site and found an article with some new media tips from Trent Reznor. Now, I am only vaguely aware of Mr Reznor, not being a Nine Inch Nails fan, myself. However, it was the tips themselves that fascinated me. And by fascinated, I mean baffled. It starts off well. Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace - it’s dying and …

I just heard about the £12.5 million revamp of the London Eye. Do you know what they're doing? They're taking each pod off, one at a time, and replacing them with a temporary one that doesn't carry passengers. Each pod is then floated down the Thames to Essex, before being transported to Worcester. The refit takes place, the pod is returned to its rightful place and the next one gets …

Shock, horror, last Thursday was actually an acceptable day, as days go. I have a feeling today will revert to the usual Thursday fare, though, so Baby Panda Thursday it is! Firstly, make sure you check out the latest Zoo Borns panda post because there's all kinds of cuteness on there that shouldn't be allowed. Also, there is a superb set of panda photos on Flickr that are unfortunately not …

It turns out everyone was right. You all said it was a great film and it is. I laughed a lot at the end. I don't know how much of that was the wine, but I would have enjoyed it sober as well. I am bitterly disappointed at the lack of Slimer, I thought he was in it more. (Also secretly glad because *shudder* more goo.)

Today we have a new and unexpected bloom: I think this must be part of the bell pepper plant, but I can't be 100% sure. It's very pretty though, and so far I have spotted two of these cute little flowers. The tomatoes are coming on very well, growing nice and strong, bigger than I expected. They are still green, so I am waiting for them to turn a lighter …

Some groundbreaking work in this film, I love it. Have only seen it a couple of times, but each time it seems to get better. Some of the hand to fist combat leaves me cold, but that helicopter scene is worth it all. May have to watch the rest of the trilogy to remind myself what happens then - although I know they are nowhere near as good.

I seem to be using Facebook less and less, but there are sometimes things that make me want to dive back into the blue and white world. My Desk Friend is one of those things. The little robot connects to your profile and can let you know when you have messages, when your friends log in, and when you've been poked. It also works for other generic services, such as …

It is all about the greens this week, as the strawberry crop seems to have become non-existant all of a sudden. I only had about three or four delicious strawberries to eat. The rest were too small and went bad before I could get to them. I believe there are some new buds beginning though, so I will be patient once more. Meanwhile, I have turned my attention to the …

I watched an episode of Doctor Who last night, with no real reasoning, except it was on the iPlayer and I needed a Doctor fix. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel cheated of a proper series this year, and even if these specials are the best thing ever, can they really replace a 13 episode run? Either way, I am one of those annoying people who has …

I would like to draw attention to this unusually serious but still excellent episode of The Buzz Report from CNET. I particularly find the conversation about Steve Jobs interesting. Naturally, all anyone wants is for Mr Jobs to get well soon, but it does raise some issues. The medical centre were very, very quick to clarify that Mr Jobs didn't get any preferential treatment and was at the top of …

The Hawk-Eye technology to record a tennis ball's movements and then review controversial line calls has been around for a while, and been included within the rules since 2006. The Wimbledon Championships are on right now, and we quite often see the players calling for a challenge on a call. Personally, I find the challenges a little bit disruptive. The player has to request it, we have to wait for …

As a big cheerleading fan of the iPlayer, I'm glad to see that other channels are gradually trending towards some of the innovative work the BBC have done. Channel 4 upgraded their on-demand service a while back, and now it is all good to work on both PC and Mac, has online streaming instead of just a desktop application, and is generally a lot better. I have only found a …

Last night, I was awake at 1am due to some pretty vicious lightning and thunder cracking right over my head. Thankfully I was indoors, but for the couple of hours I was awake, I was not amused. At what point does lightning cease being awe-inspiring and become more of an annoyance? When I was a kid, massive storms were great fun. There was one particular day, I was waiting for …

A few times recently, we've been asked the question: I'm starting a new blog, which platform should I use? Of the free software that is available, the two main ones are Blogger and Wordpress and I will always opt for Wordpress. Here are my five reasons: Wordpress just feels more professional. Even if you're starting a blog for purely fun reasons, I feel like the layout of WP admin is …

A quick shout out to current Formula 1 driver Heikki Kovalainen, who remembered Franck whilst being quizzed by F1.com. The Ask the Expert feature puts tricky questions to F1 drivers, with the subjects being loosely associated with their lives. Heikki also managed to get the highest score of the ten or so drivers quizzed so far. He is officially now a friend of the site.

I have found myself analysing blogging a little too much recently, but one thing has occurred to me that I hadn't really thought about before. The blogs, or entries therein, that are based around a specific structure are very, very interesting. For example, on this very corner of the interweb, I have a couple of ongoing projects - the Film Watch live blogs, and the Great Gardening Adventure. Now, I …

This year, there are more ways than ever to keep up with what's happening at the hallowed tennis grounds, and I am grateful because each year I get more and more scatterbrained. I extolled the virtues of the BBC's coverage last year, and there's more of the same going on for the next two weeks. From what I can tell, we can enjoy: The Wimbledon live blog, giving updates from …

If you trace the origins of our eating habits back far enough, you'll find that a man would knock a rabbit on the head with a club, and bring it back to his cave for eating. Fast forward a few millennia (have no idea about the timescale of humans?), and I had a pizza delivered to my house as a result of typing for a few minutes. Of all the …

It won't come as a surprise to you that I found this film much too long. However, I did enjoy it, and the story did sweep me along, to a point. It was a slow-starting film, took half an hour to introduce the three characters. As I understand it, this is part of a trilogy, so that seems a bit unnecessary?

I have learnt many things this week, but the most important one is regards to keeping control of the plants. Up until now, and perhaps in response to being grateful they survived at all, I had let the plants grow and grow and keep on growing. The strawberry pot was reasonably restrained. It grew to a certain size and then some fruit popped out. However, the tomatoes got taller and …

Recently, I have been making time to record more stuff for Librivox. The collaborative book that I was co-ordinating is nearing completion, so I have started a new solo effort, and am participating in some of the other group projects as well. More on that another time, what I am here to say is that a rather cool iPhone App has been rocketing up the application charts. It is simply …

Finally, there is word on the official FKM site regarding the Le Mans race. A couple of days ago, The Joker (site admin, I believe) posted reaction to the 24 hour race. On the entire day: Sweet and sour... that’s what these 24 Hours in Le Mans taste like. But with three podiums for his three last participations, I think the stats and figures are pretty good! FKM wants to …

Since I watched Rain Man, and learnt about this Abbott and Costello phenomenon, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. I keep bugging Mr C by saying "Who's on First?" and then getting annoyed when he doesn't know what to say. Not that either of us know any of the sketch to carry on with, but it's fun catching him off guard. It is amazing to …

Ugh, Thursdays really are awful. Here's some cuteness to cheer things up: Credit: Fiona Jones/Flickr Waiting for someone? Credit: Jodi/Flickr What is up with pandas hanging upside down from trees?

I've noticed a couple of posts recently, in my feed reader, that suggest apps that will help to keep track, and even publish your own lifestream. I sat back for a minute, and thought, how many social networks can there be? I know there are some niche ones out there, book clubs, wine groups, things like that. But how many actual social things are there? Then I discovered one of …

Don't you just hate those blogs where people analyse what they're doing to such a degree that they actually talk about little else? Well, I apologise in advance for this post, which is just a quick thought about why people blog. As far as I can tell there are three reasons, and these are quite general categories. To connect with people. You want to find people that are interested in …

And there it was, Le Mans in all its glory. Franck started the race, Bourdais finished it, and between the three drivers, they came in second. It was a race of high attrition, with the Audi's struggling, giving Peugeot their best change to break their rival's run of victories. Good for Peugeot, they managed a win, bad for Franck it was the other team. The #8 Peugeot at the hands …

Do you remember The Man Who Cycled the World? The crazy but impressive Mark Beaumont thought it would be smart to visit all the continents, travel 18,000 miles and do it in under 200 days. I wrote about it after seeing a repeat of the accompanying programme on the iPlayer, and now, Mark is back. I hadn't noticed this initially, but the Beeb have set the man up with a …

It seems like social networks are suddenly starting to realise that if people are going to put their lives on the internet, then they might want to have a proper identity. Facebook have introduced what appear to be called "vanity URLs" to your profile. It seems a bit mean to say that having your profile accessible by something with your own name rather than a bunch of random numbers is …

When it comes to getting up and about and trying to exercise, I tend to flit from one thing to another. Nothing really captures my attention, except swimming. I do not like to go to the local swimming pool because (and this is probably another of my weird traits) there is no way of seeing how busy it is before you go in, and yet I don't want there to …