Dr Laura James's writings

Turns out evil isn't as black and white as you might think. Google checked against a whole scale of evil before making their recent China decision.

Beautiful two-page comic from Eleanor Davis.

Pandora is a neat site which creates a radio station based on music similar to stuff you tell it you like. (Thanks to Guy for the link!)

It happens all the time: I am sitting down enjoying a cup of coffee, when I realise that I'm looking somewhat pasty and white, and that I must so something about this straight away. Finally, the answer, in a Peterborough cafe.

We went shopping earlier, and I was able to relive the scary experience I had at Tesco Bar Hill last week. At the time I was shopping for bits for the office, and so was going around the non-grocery aisles which I normally avoid. During my perambulations, I happened to spot a number of fitness balance balls. Now, since taking up pilates, my parents have been urging me to acquire one of these, so I was sufficiently tuned in to notice them all. But they were everywhere! I passed no less than 5 distinct varieties, not all together, but spread out throughout various sections of the store - Fitness, Seasonal, Pilates/yoga (in an entirely different area to Fitness). I even thought I spotted tie-dyed balance balls, which I dismissed as a Tesco-induced hallucination, or perhaps a mangled shelf labelling system. Tie-dyed yoga mat bags seemed much more likely (yes, these not only exist, but are all over the online yoga shops I've looked at). However, I was mistaken. Today I finally gave in a

Today is my Smart's first birthday! To celebrate this I am baking a cake (currently looking extremely flat in the oven, ho hum) which will hopefully be edible in time for my post-PhD party tonight. Our first guest has arrived, bearing Krispy Kremes, mmm, which will not survive until later I fear. Also, Happy Birthday to Ambo, who amazingly shares today with my car :)

I feel rather like Bristow now. I'd offer him some biscuit crumbs, but I fear that if I open the window at all I will freeze to death.

Only yesterday I was talking to someone who asked me whether Smart also made motorbikes, and now this !

We're only lacking a fridge, and the half of the cupboard for which Ikea delivered the wrong parts. We have net access, and so can continue to use Skype for phone calls too.

Usually I don't get much further through the LRB than the ever-delightful personal ads (a particularly fine crop, this issue, I thought, although more transparent than some batches). There's a intriguing review of The Google Story there too at the moment. In the Guardian, Tim Dowling has an amusing article about the rise of the podcast ; good to know my decision not to bother with podcasts, with the exception of certain Radio 4 programmes and a very few quality lectures, was the right one.

with FlyGuy . Made me happy.

The awesome dudes over at MySociety have set up a site to bug you randomly via email until you do stuff - HassleMe . Like a helpful but annoying friend, only less personal (there's no one to hit when you can't take it any more). When they add in support for hassle over IM, I might actually get things done!

The new CAPE building has the poorest communal area of any workplace I have ever seen. Not only is there an almost total absence of natural light, the box-like walls are matt white, enlivened only by a few orange and pink rectangles painted on. I appreciate there were probably budget constraints, but still, they would have been better off leaving it plain, or perhaps getting some art students in and giving them cheap paint. An improvement could be implemented by the unfortunate occupants themselves: retro game art using postits . If the pixelated designs were of photonic or electronic devices, they would even be appropriate to the building.

Mildly interesting article about Alison Richards , who is making waves at a male-dominated level of academia. Further down the chain, Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G) seem to be taking off . One can only hope that they do the right things, given the funding and press coverage they are getting. At a Women@CL talk about CC4G last year, concerns were raised about whether the girls were actually aware of the computer science behind the fun, pink activities, and the organisers weren't very reassuring on that score unfortunately. They also seemed quite happy to blow large amounts of cash on software, which seemed a poor choice, when they could have gone open source. This is reflected somewhat in the article - girls learning MS PowerPoint skills, eh? - not exactly computer science. I bet the "geeky, long-haired boys playing war games" (I quote) stereotypically associated with ICT won't be using PowerPoint when they hack around on computers, so whether CC4G is going to help

Newsnight has been running a week about technology and Silicon Valley, and includes a broadcast by Paxman et al in Second Life in which MMORPGs and other online environments are discussed. It's worth watching if you aren't well up on these things. I'm not that online (yet), but it's interesting to see Newsnight covering these issues, especially in CES week, when a lot of technology reporting has been of variable quality (I've heard too many reporters saying how CES is showcasing nerdy products, when these are items which regular consumers will be buying this year).

Cuteness vs beauty in the NYT, both being irrelevant for platonic friendships (in the Independent), and if that's all too much for you to cope with, find out which sorrow-drowning wines to buy at your local supermarket by picking 17+ rated ones at Superplonk .

I'm hanging out with a dodgy crowd these days. People who actually, regularly, voluntarily eat fudge from the Kings Parade fudge shop. People who don't like cheese made from goats' milk. And people who go to Ukelele Orchestra gigs and rave about them, until I get worn down (doesn't take long) and end up filling my ipod a little more with covers of Ms Dynamite amongst others. I'm enjoying them though :-) Whoever said online forums were strange?

I don't normally do this, but I'm planning to do some different things with my life this year. It always seems to be in vogue to resolve change one's life, to become a whole new person. That seems like both a lot of effort, and also somewhat alarming - what if one didn't like what one became? Instead, I'm aiming to be more like me this year. Being how I like to be and doing the things I like; not just taking the easy choices, but setting my personal priorities above others', and trying to keep to them. All the best for 2006.