The corporation received around 55,000 complaints prior to the screening of the hit West End show, in January, and 8,000 after it had been broadcast.  [via BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | BBC rejects Springer complaints]

Funny, Alastair Campbell complains and they loose a Chairman and a Chief Executive (aka DG), 8,000 people complain and its "yeah, well, it has artistic merit". (I should point out here that I didn't watch it because it was an opera and I loathe opera, of any type - I couldn't care less whether this particular opera was broadcast or not). I suppose we should should conclude that the BBC has got better at picking its fights!

Dare Obasanjo has a post: The Problems with Using Javascript / AJAX / DHTML for User Interfaces, the title is misleading. What he is actually talking about is using this technology for building websites for which the summary is:

The web browser is a lousy environment to build applications in for two reasons: a) history and the back button play cause havoc and b) in a web browser people expect applications to degrade gracefully and behave properly in the configuration they have for their web browser (e.g. no javascript).

Scott Isaacs has a post entitled AJAX or as I like to call it, DHTML where he wrote "... The problem lies in we are building rich applications in an immature application environment. We are essentially attempting to morph the current state of the browser from a dynamic form package to a rich application platform...."

Indeed, in other words the problem is with using Javascript/Ajax/DHTML with a browser not the technology per-se. Move that same technology out of the browser and into a more mature application environment such as Zeepe and the problems go away and you get the full win - its a fun environment to work in, its powerful and its quick. 

Paid a pittance ... the Swede a basic match wage of 1,500 Swiss francs (675.4 pounds), plus a daily allowance of 250 Swiss francs, free accommodation and a match bonus of 3,000 Swiss francs. [via Top News Article | Reuters.co.uk]

£2K for a couple of hours work is apparently a pittance, its all relative I suppose.

According to Professor John Waterhouse of Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge, the so-called Medieval Warm Period (AD 800 to 1400) and the Little Ice Age (AD 1600-1850) do not show up.

"Most climate researchers expected them to be there," he told the BBC News website.

 [via BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New row on climate 'hockey stick']

Ooooh, too little information is a dangerous thing; it raises questions: 

1. Only most researchers expect known weather patterns to be repeated in proxies?
2. Known weather patterns do not show up and yet the data is deemed to be a valid predictor?
3. "Other scientists say the work simply highlights a technical issue" - there are scientists who don't think their work is technical?

No idea myself, but for a change it is nice and warm here today.

Red tape for business slashed.  Encouraging enterprise is essential if Britain is to compete in a global environment, said Chancellor Gordon Brown in his Budget speech. [via 10 Downing Street News]

Is it my imagination or is "red tape slashed" in every single budget (whichever stoopid party is in power)? If it is, when is it going to run out, and if we know that, why don't we get rid of it all now?

In the year to January 2005, pay growth (excluding bonuses) in the private sector was 4.3 per cent, compared with 4.7 per cent for the public sector. Including bonus payments, the gap between the sectors was slightly less, with private sector growth at 4.4 per cent compared with 4.6 per cent for the public sector.
 [via National Statistics Online - Average Earnings]

I was attracted to this item because it was headlined "Pay growth steady in year to January". Usually, NSO headlines contain numbers like "rate up to 74.9% in January". What does steady mean I wonder - why are they not being their usual explicit selves - conspiracy theory overload.

Actually, all very dull, other than the bit above. Excluding bonuses, public sector growth was 4.7%, including bonuses it was 4.6% - what does this mean for bonuses - they were less? And, if so, why - failure to deliver? And, if so, by whom?

It was my birthday and my son gave me a card which he said he thought portrayed what I look like "on the inside" - those who knew me 25 years ago might find this amusing:

"People are very angry that they and their children were confronted with pornography on BBC One at 9.15 in the morning," he said. [via BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Daytime porn show angers viewers]

.... foot - fire!!!!! Following on from the producer who didn't know that paying convicted criminals was only allowed if they wouldn't do it for free (!! according to a quote in the Times so shovel of salt required) and he didn't know whether they would have appeared for nothing (his own words) it seems to be a day for setting off both barrels.

I still find it amusing that there is a BBC Daytime Controller - what do they do, what does the Controller of BBC1 do, the Controller of BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC ..., are these only part time jobs, i.e. the evening or is Control a partnership during the day? Does BBC Daytime Controller also 'control' radio or is it only TV?

BBC snaps up U.S. remake of The Office.  LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC has bought the rights to the U.S. remake of one of the few British sitcoms to have made it big across the pond -- The Office. [via Reuters: Top News]

Uh, oh - the BBC reduced to purchasing the regurgitated scraps of its own meagre faire. 

 Do Microsoft use Project? ...  [via Loft Blog - a blog aloft]

No, of course not - next question please.

An external BBC Trust, headed by current board of governors Chairman Michael Grade, "will be the custodian of the BBC's purposes, the licence fee and the public interest," she said. A separate executive board "will be accountable to the Trust for the delivery of the BBC's services." [via Top News Article | Reuters.co.uk]

and the current situation is a 'board of directors' (though probably not quite so formally named, I think Greg Dyke called them his petals) is accountable to the Board of Governors for delivery of services <sigh>.

It has just started snowing again in dear old rural north western Essex where the (broadband) telephones, gas, mains sewers, street lights and speed limits do not reach. I can't remember the last day it didn't snow - its at least 10 days ago and I can't remember the last time that I couldn't remember how long it had been since it didn't snow. Growin' old. But I can remember that last time we had lots of snow - winter 1990-1991. 

... here:

... the British Heart Foundation, said: "The evidence supporting a smoking ban in all public places is so strong that there is widespread agreement among the medical community, and no room left for scientific debate.  [via BBC NEWS | Health | Passive smoking killing thousands]

No room left for scientific debate. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear - there is *always* room left for scientific debate, always room for old theories to be overturned. Indeed, this is shown to be a completely daft position to take since 3 years ago the BMA said the number was 1000 - now the number is, allegedly and supposedly unarguably, 11,000 - perhaps they would have preferred the argument left dead and buried at 1000? Or perhaps they would have preferred no room left when the 'scientists' claimed smoking was safe. <sigh>