With just a couple of minutes to go before the end of voting, my prediction for the viewers' choice of BBC Sports Personality of the year is David Beckham.

Cool! The author himself brought the following to my attention - O'Reilly Network: Apache Web-Serving with Mac OS X: Part 1 [Dec. 07, 2001]

Apache is regarded as the most popular web server available today. With its incredible portability and support for anything you'd ever want to do, Apple wisely decided to ship Apache with its Unix-based operating system. With this web-serving powerhouse at your fingertips, I'll explain how you can impress your boss and solidify your love for Mac OS X, all at the same time.

Thanks Kevin! Nice article BTW.

There's going to be one hell of a row after Creed wins Turner prize:

Creed, 33, collected £20,000 for his controversial installation, which centres around an empty gallery with a pair of flashing lights.

In an interview on television Creed said something along the lines of "it's not my job to interpret this work for people. It's just lights being switched on and off." In fact he came across in the interview as a complete idiot.

Unbelievable.

Apologies to the regular reader of this site for the lack of updates. I've been snowed under with other things.

Also, I just found out this evening that my brother, Richard, was taken into hospital suddenly and he had an emergency appendectomy six or so hours ago.

Missing a weblog day pales into insignificance in the circumstances.

Eric Raymond's How To Ask Questions The Smart Way:

If you decide to come to us for help, you don't want to be one of the losers. You don't want to seem like one, either. The best way to get a rapid and responsive answer is to ask it like a winner - to ask it like a person with smarts, confidence, and clues who just happens to need help on one particular problem.

The Register: Steve Wozniak's smartphone adventure

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has joined the board of Danger Inc, the startup founded by a number of ex-Apple luminaries and backed by carriers Deutsche Telekom and Orange. Danger's Hiptop communicator was unveiled in October: it's a tablet-based device that runs Java apps.

I was just mentioned in my lecture an hour or so ago the use of Java in mobile communication devices.

I wonder if Essential Viewing technologies would be a good match for the device?

´Essential Viewing video encoding and delivery technologies represent a major breakthrough in video file compression. We have developed a high quality, scalable codec that works equally well at high and low bandwidths, consistently delivering smaller and better quality files than our competitors. The player runs on any Java or C enabled device and, as 90% of Internet browsers are Java enabled, this allows us significantly higher reach than other delivery methods. The player can be seamlessly integrated into web pages and client devices, offering an enhanced user experience.

Disclaimer: Essential Viewing was founded by a colleague and some of our ex-students. I wish them well.

The Register: Apple signs Quanta to build next-generation iMac

Apple has hired Taiwanese contract manufacturer to produce one million iMacs with built-in 15in LCD screens, the United Daily News, a Chinese language newspaper, has reported.

The Register: WinXP Pro edition for £37 - Educate yourself...

When Microsoft launched Windows XP it also switched the way it sold software to students. Previously, if you bought software at savage discounts under the Student and Teacher License you had to provide some proof that you qualified, and then Microsoft would send you the software. This process has now been "simplified and improved" - you don't buy an empty box and send a note from your headmaster to Microsoft any more, you just buy the full working product, and install it.

It may come as a surprise to my students that I'll be attending the .NET Day workshop later today. Should be interesting. Judging by the .NET Day Speakers and the .NET Day Abstracts this isn't going to be just any old .NET briefing. Looking forward to some controversy. Will report back here on the interesting bits.

Better get to bed early so that I have my wits about me in the morning ;-)