Monthly Archives: December 2002

Pop Up (Up and Away)

There has been great discussion recently about pop-ups. Are they doomed? Well, it’s a subject close to my heart as, being in the online advertising/research business for many years, they have become an important part of my life.

I have to ask, how they can properly be controlled? They are a useful marketing tool and can be useful to site publishers outside the advertising arena but some companies have exploited them far too much. MarketingFix notes that Netscape has announced it’s going to start offering the facility to block pop-ups. Interestingly, the pop-up filter has to be enabled by the user and then “Once enabled, the filter is preset to allow pop-ups on some sites, including several of AOL’s own properties”

I only wish it was possible to stop the multiple spawning.

On this day…

2004: Paycheck

Die Another Day

Die Another Day movie poster
Die Another Day movie poster

I saw the new James Bond film today. Apparently, Bond is 40 – which means the formula has been around for a while. Die Another Day is as cheesy as many a Bond, yet it remains an entertaining cinema experience. I’m sure, however, that it won’t be voted a classic. It’s less secret-agent more agent-detective and the Bond-girls are now more MI5-partners (or more accurately NSA-partners). There are some fantastic scenes on the ice (using The Eden Project as a backdrop) and gadgets galore. If I had any complaints about the film it would be the quality of some of the effects which is, to say the least, not up to standard. [Official Site]

On this day…

2005: links for 2005-12-15
2003: Busy Busy Busy

Sleuth

It’s been said to be the world’s greatest thriller and, ashamedly, I was not aware of Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth until I saw it last night at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. And what a fantastic play it is. As a thriller is was quite intriguing and it was certainly sad that the theatre was very empty (then again, it’s a Friday before Christmas so maybe people don’t go to plays). There were some mixed reviews for the original cast and I am not sure what the critics would make of Ian Ogilvy and Jonathan Kerrigan. I thought they did a great job and I was hooked. As it’s not too busy, theatrenow is a great place to get discount tickets a couple of days before you want to see it.

On this day…

2002: Christmas Shopping

Invisible Maps

The Amsterdam real time mapping projects sounds, in theory, very interesting,

“Every inhabitant of Amsterdam has an invisible map of the city in his head. The way he moves about the city and the choices made in this process are determined by this mental map. Amsterdam RealTime attempts to visualise these mental maps through examining the mobile behaviour of the city’s users”.

Amsterdam RealTime

In reality, the maps seems a little dull. [via boingboing.net]

On this day…

2005: Flickr Christmas: Jamie Enjoys Herself
2005: Civil Partnership: Locally In Wandsworth
2005: Tribute To Atlantic 252
2003: Gay Dads

Christmas Comes But Once A Year

Can you believe it’s December? Is Christmas a joyful time, or not? Over at ‘Tis The Season, the sisters help you through your seasonal worries. I haven’t got an advent calendar yet but I did find a potted history of them here.

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: George Michael To Wed
2005: Flickr Christmas: Advent Is Here
2003: A New Month
2002: Link and Think

Link and Think

Link and Think is an observance of World AIDS Day in the personal web publishing communities.

“Link and Think is an observance of World AIDS Day in the personal web publishing communities. The project involves hundreds of webloggers, journalers, diarists and other personal website publishers, each linking to resources about HIV/AIDS or publishing personal stories about how the AIDS pandemic has affected them: http://linkandthink.org/.

On this day…

2005: Civil Partnership: George Michael To Wed
2005: Flickr Christmas: Advent Is Here
2003: A New Month
2002: Christmas Comes But Once A Year