HIs business is under threat.

It's a dumb stunt but his business is under threat. The market for stores other than Amazon selling Kindle books is pretty much zero. Amazon's already killed off countless bookshops and the Kindle will account for a lot of those remanining.

I'm also sad to say I rarely buy books other than from Amazon and plan to get a Kindle once my "to read" pile's a bit less brutal. Sorry bookshops, I liked you but you can't compete.

Press one if your car is on fire

If that's the case, better hope their call centre is in the UK

Passport?

Is it just me that uses my passport for internal flights (despite the 10 year old photo that looks nothing like me)

Ritual

It's Archaeologist for "we don't know what it's for"

Aaaaand normality is restored

After defending plod over retaining 999 caller data I'm back to thinking they're a bunch of arrogant shitebags who think they're above the law.

CRB Check

I do have to be CRB checked for work. That I dialled 999 (for a genuine crime) in recent years isn't recorded.

Dalek

You! Will! Love! Honour! And! Obeyyyyyy!

Spared

I don't know if we're spared as a nation or I'm spared individually by choosing not to listen to such guff.

I suppose the big advantage we Brits have is BBC radio which does have high quality programming (even if not all of it appeals to me).

Wow

And there was me thinking Jodrell, etc. were just a bit of a laugh.

More fuel vs new spaceport?

They're good points but Shirley the fuel savings can't be enough to construct a new facility, especially one in a remote state that's frozen solid for chunks of the year.

In my day

It was a Sherman tank

Annus Mirabilis?

Comedy fans might dub 2010 as an "Annus Mirabilis" instead. A top 10 with Playmobil reconstructions would round the year off wonderfully.

Sad but true

Google search is going the way of all the old search engines it trounced in its early days. Their hubris generally expressed itself as portalitis, where the race to add features meant that search was generally neglected. Google's hubris manifests as Chrome OS and an appalling lack of respect for its users (and especially its ad customers).

I honestly can't see who would take the crown from here. A web search startup would struggle to get funding ("who are your competitors" "Google" "ah, right - bye then") so maybe we're looking for a rejuvenated Infoseek or something. Hell, even MS are on the ropes enough to get the odd sympathy search from me.

Mobile computer

It's a mobile computer that tips the scales at almost 2kg. Weight is the reason my netbook travels with me and not my ThinkPad. This class of browser only device needs to weigh less than a netbook to make up for the lack of a hard drive.

And it's not just we nerds that want a hard disk. Normal people want to store their music collections, too.

Yup

Netbook and laptop pricing does overlap quite a bit, where it becomes a question of "do I want to carry the extra weight?".

If "cloudbook" and netbook pricing overlap I can't see what would prompt me (or anyone else) to get the less capable device.

Title

Oh nuts

@it must be mighty cold sitting there

After the terror of SPACE our Playmonaut has no fear of chalfonts.

Save your eyes, get a proper ebook reader

As someone who can happily spend an entire weekend buried in a book there's no way I'd do that on a smartphone. It'd be fine for a commute (were I to use public transport) but for a proper sesh? No chance.

Speaking more generally, I've been sceptical about ebook readers. Since moving my mountain of paper books around has shown me it's not as "pointless bling" as I'd thought. So once my "to read" pile goes down, I'll be in the market for an ebook reader.