Expect very light blogging for the next couple of weeks, nothing major, I'm just going to be rather busy doing other things. Normal service will be resumed shortly!

Am I the only one of the school of thought who believes a couple is two or more? I think I learnt the concept from the immortal phrase "I'm just nipping down the pub for a couple of beers"...

So you can easily beat the latest Pepsi challenge... If you do, make sure you do the right thing and use the Tune Recycler.

"The Weasel Goes Pop"? Ok, bad pun based on an old English nursery rhymme called "Pop Goes The Weasel", now if you'll excuse me I'm off down the City Road, heading for The Eagle.

I've got a stack of stuff to get done, but I'm pulling a Russ, and musing about ways of getting video media onto my taco for playback whilst I'm out and about.

It appears at a quick glance to be feasible with today's technology, and I've got the processes down to around 3-4 steps.

• Obtain video in digital format - likely sources include TV network and film web sites (like Sven's), TV capture cards, DVD ripping, and peer to peer networks, all pretty straight forward, although the picture sizings, encoding methods and frame rates are going to be far from optimal.
• Converting the data to a common format - 3gpp seems like the best bet for this to me, especially as Chris has mentioned some open source tools, failing that Nokia's Multimedia Convertor should be up to the job.
• Getting the video onto the phone - Bluetooth transfer might be a tad slow given that I'm generally rushing to get out the door in the mornings, however the USB cable with the N-Gage would be pretty quick. A strategy to sync the phone's content with a prioritised program list would be neat, something along the lines of upload one of this list of films or TV shows, and if that list is empty upload the morning news or last night's football.
• Automating and streamlining the process - the boring bit, but without it being swift and easy to do, I'm not likely to keep using the process except for exceptional events.

Interesting thoughts, and something I'll have to look at, but I'll put it on the back burner for now.

Update: SmartMovie looks very interesting for the media conversion.

It's less than two weeks until the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne, Australia. Pitpass.com has a useful overview of the 2004 season rules, the major changes are in Friday testing, longer life engines (a driver has to use the same engine for practise, race and qualifying), drive through penalties to be abolished, and some restriction of electronic capabilities (no auto gear changes or launch control).

The new rules could upset the apple cart a little, but not substantially, don't expect Minardi or Jordan to run away with the constructors title!

One of the chaps here is changing job titles, so he's got a few old business cards to spare. Ergo, mad card folding following Ned Batchelder's great instructions.

What we have in these pictures is a simple Menger's Sponge (depth 1), I think the eventual goal is a depth 2 sponge as in this picture. Then again, Gavin is certainly daft enough to attempt the level 3 sponge...

Quick fag packet maths: one cube is 6 cards, level 1 sponge is 20 cubes (120 cards), a level 2 sponge is 20 level 1 sponges (2400 cards), a level 3 sponge is 20 level 2 sponges (48000 cards); I guess we're safe for while, I don't think we've got *that* many cards to spare!

Certainly a uncomfortable thought for vegetarians and vegans, the full English breakfast has certainly shocked many tourists on first acquaintance - Russ once told me of his horror on his first exposure to X rated quantities of meat and fat. The trouble is that the full English is generally too time consuming to make and eat, so cereals or a rushed bacon sandwich is far more usual.

My GeoURL neighbour Chris has ended his self imposed blogging exile with a paen to bacon sarnies, and some musings about added fillings. I wonder if he'd read my recent ramblings about pork and bacon, or if it's just a common mid-Winter primeval urge to stuff hot bits of pig into a chunk of bread.

Diego's pretty excited by his new office, Martin seems impressed too. I suspect Martin and I are most impressed by the location, but hey, the offices don't look too bad either. Last time I was in that part of Dublin I certainly wasn't looking for office space, I was visiting the home of the mighty G.

Cool beans! The Nokia chaps have given a canned demo of Python on Series 60 phones at ETech, sure we knew this was coming but it's always nice to see something tangible. Now the big questions are; when can we play with it on our phones? What can it really do on the phone? And are there any restrictions on access to the address book, memory, network stacks etc.?

They say they've been working on it since 1998, which makes it rather amusing given that Symbian's chief systems architect was asking me questions about Python less than a year ago. Either Nokia were keeping it very tightly under their hats, or he's quite a poker player...

In all the debate about the new offside law, most commentators have missed the small print that says "Ruud van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry are mostly exempt from this law especially when playing at home"...

There's another good reason that Arsenal are unbeaten in the premiership this season, it's not just the quality of their squad, it's the number of players they have on the pitch, sure the three dressed in black have mediocre ball skills, but they're playing a vital part in Arsenal's success. I'd love to see stats on how many penalties Arsenal (and also ManUre) have conceded at home this season, it's probably none.

Do I sound bitter? Yes, well I am rather. The last thing the premiership needs is to descend to a level where the refereeing is so poor and weak that a home side or "big-club" automatically has a significant advantage before a ball is kicked.

Strange stuff, whilst it's true that Psion seemed to be the Symbian partner least interested in using the operating system, for them to effectively bail out of the consortium at what many regard as a a poor price is a trifle surprising; buying an asset valued at £240 million for around £130 is very good business for Nokia, less so for Psion and their shareholders...

There's plenty that could happen before this deal is finalised, I don't think we've heard the last episode of this deal yet.

Weird weather in the UK this month, two weeks ago snow, last week temperatures were almost in the 20s (Centigrade), and this week back to freezing.

To cap it all we found a bemused wasp flying around the office this morning, what's next?

Looks like Matthew has been shagging the au pair and beating the children again.

Then again, I could have mis-understood his post entirely :-)

A real-life FOAF has a need for a cartoonist, if that's you give me a shout with your contact details (email, IM, phone, whatever) and I'll ask him to get in touch with you.

T9 text entry is very convenient, but suffers greatly from the heavy handed puritanism amd American imperialism of its owners AOL. Just try entering common or garden UK English phrases or mild epithets and you'll soon be swearing like a chav in frustration.

Fortunately more implementations of T9 have a "ducking book" solution, you can add words to your dictionary. Sure it's a pain in the "appe" to do, but fortunately The Grauniad has come up with a handy list for assisting in the task...

Update: It looks like Signor 'ammersley is having fun with T9 too, truly bosnia stuff!

So after a monster hunt, I've gone and bought the Taco. I finally managed to track one down at Freedom Mobiles and ordered it over the 'net.

So I've got the beast, I've started getting it loaded with all the goodies I need: WirelessIRC, FExplorer, e-books etc. (I've got a "what's on my taco" article in the works), and lo and behold 50 quid gets lopped from the price :-(

A Series 60 Symbian phone for less than £100? Blimey!