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I've just had to help a friend with here broadband email service. It was working on Monday, but at some point during the week it stopped.

It was complaining that it couldn't get a response from the POP3 server. So I double checked all the documentation and rechecked the password. No good.

I had a look through her existing emails and discovered that she'd been sent details of a new email service that she was being moved onto. So I checked through the settings for that.
There were quite a few settings changes and I thought that would sort it, but no.

So then I went to the ISPs extremely slow, and badly organised AJAX enabled website, where eventually I managed to get the help pages to open for me. There I double checked all the settings, still OK and then looked for more help.

"Perhaps your password has become desynchronised in the move to the new service. Go to this page and change your password." It suggested.

I eventually had to find a different computer to get through the website without the AJAX choking and then I changed the password.

It still wasn't working.

I logged into the provider's site again, to be sure the password was right.
I logged into the provider's webmail service, which I discover is now a GMail solution.

There I find, in my friend's inbox, sent after the changeover, a new, and subtly different set of instructions on what to do to get POP3 working. Now you have to log into the webmail service and ENABLE POP3 apparently.

IF you move someone to a new email service.
AND some changes are necessary for them to continue to use it as before
sending them instructions AFTER the changeover is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!

Last week I saw something, a visual effect and I thought "ooh, I must remember that, I could use it in a website design".

But I don't have a particular project to use it in right now.

By the time I do, I'll have forgotten the idea.

So here's my suggestion. Make yourself a sourcebook, a scrapbook if you like. Set aside a directory on your PC, or a junk space on your website. And then when you come across a cool visual idea, or something like that, clip it, or create an example and put it in your scrap book.

In years to come, when you are looking for inspiration for your current project, you can look through your sourcebook for ideas that you would otherwise have forgotten. Probably a lot of it will look dated, but you know, 'what comes around goes around' It'll come back into fashion eventually, and you'll be ready for it when it does.

I've had Google's personal home page product on my home page for quite a while now. It was quite flaky at first, but it has gradually become more stable and more useful. Usually without my noticing.

I tried the MSN page briefly, but as Google and Microsoft worked on updating these products, the advantages and bugs swung back and forth until I got fed up and decided to choose the stick to the path of light and avoid the dark side for ever more.

Last week it occured to me that I could save some of my browsing time, but actually doing something with the homepage. I added a new tab and then I added the RSS feeds for most of the comics that I tend to try to keep up with.

Now instead of trying to remember 10 different urls and to remember to visit each one a couple of times a week, I can simply check the comics tab to see what's new.

It's made life a whole lot easier, but certainly take some element of fun away from it. There used to be a frisson of excitement as I waited for a site to load so that I could see if todays' comic was different from that I saw yesterday. Now all of that excitement is condensed into one single page.

Still, must move with the times.

Not content with giving their console a name that sounds very stupid in some languages, Nintendo's current advertising campaign gives the game away.

After shots of people using the controller to shoot and slash their way through mortal enemies, the voice over tells us...

Only ennui.

You can't make this stuff up.

Well I've had my Sagem 7280T for a few weeks now and I guess it's staying. It's not done anything really terrible and so I'll live with it. The temperature controlled fan is a lot quieter that I expected and it's not been on all that often, even with the high temperatures we had here in the last few weeks. The persistent ticking from the hard disk itself is no louder than a clock and I can certainly live with that.

That's not to say that it functions perfectly. It has a few niggles and I'll outline them here so you can be aware of them.

Read more!