come on down - the price is right?

someone on a messageboard I frequent is trying to go a whole year without doing any of their shopping in a supermarket - http://supermarkupsweep.wordpress.com/ - it will be interesting to see how they get on. personally, I'm not happy with the stranglehold Tesco's reportedly have on the high street - isnt it supposed to be something like one out of every seven pounds spent in the UK spent there? but, like a lot of things in my life, I'm too busy (LAZY) to do anything about it and investigate the alternatives.
but I will be taking an interest in how this works out.

ARTHUR C. CLARKE 1917 - 2008

the man who has been described as 'the colossus of science fiction' has passed away at his home in Sri Lanka. personally, I've been a fan since reading his books at the local public library when I was still at primary school. some of my most treasured books are by him - from an ancient 50s paperback copy of 'The Sands Of Mars' I picked up in a secondhand shop over twenty years ago, to the pair of signed hardbacks of '2001' I bought from Waterstones on the anniversary of his vision at the start of the new millennium. always a voice for rationality and good in his writings, he will be sorely missed in the years ahead.

the BBC obituary - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2358011.stm

F1 2008

interesting article on the new season found here

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20118.html

and we're getting the new N96 from august, apparently

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/11/nokia_n96_august_uk_release/

campfire story

came across this the other day - if it's true, how creepy can you get?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/02/27/notes022708.DTL

Geekery

Not that I'm really surprised, but it would appear that the US version of Spaced is on the cards to be a right bag of cunt - http://www.denofgeek.com/television/13192/simon_pegg_on_the_us_spaced_remake.html
now, I'm only an SF geek (and not a major one at that - I dont like B5, and the only Star Trek I'll sit and watch is The Next Generation) - but surely, like the sad sacks who keep turning up for X-factor auditions, US tv execs should know by now by US adaptations of UK comedies dont have the *best* track record of success. As Pegg says though, it's particularly shitty that no credit at all is given to Jessica Stevenson for her work on it.

And on the SF subject, this - http://www.halproject.com/hal/ - has a superb screensaver to download based on the computer displays seen aboard the Discovery during 2001.