If you’re running Firefox and have Greasemonkey installed, you should uninstall the latter ASAP. There’s a massive security hole that makes it possible for a website to grab any file from your hard drive. I imagine this’ll get fixed within the next 24hours, but better to be safe than sorry. ‘course, if you want to be extra safe, you could switch to Opera…Sorry, couldn’t resist

I’ve just recovered from hysterics after reading this. Somebody had the bright idea of interviewing Jeeves of Ask Jeeves, via the search engine. I nearly died. Via Jeremy Zawodny.

I feel strangely cut off with Bloglines not working…Exciting things could be afoot, and I would know nothing of them. Sure, I could visit the pages manually, but that’s so 2004
Guess what? It’s season-finale feature-length Tarantino-directed CSI this evening! You may think you’ve heard that before. So do I, if that helps. In fact, I seem to remember the newspapers reviewing said episodes last Wednesday morning. How odd. Nevertheless - exciting!

• podsafe music network - Artists register their ‘podsafe music’, and podcasters can find it easily, knowing they have the rights to play it. Very cool.
• Freevlog: Tutorial - A step-by-step guide to setting up a videoblog for free.
• Aeroplane Lift - If, like Mr Weasley, you’re wondering how planes can fly, then this page may help. It didn’t say what I expected it to

I spent much of yesterday feeling sorry for myself. Yeah, I know - I spent the end of last week doing many cool things, why should I feel sorry for myself? I don’t claim to be a logical person. I tried to kick myself out of it by listening to loud Rob Costlow and watching Shakespeare in Love, which helped a bit. Anyway, today I decided to try the old stalwart - retail therapy.

Having learnt that Flight Simulator 2004 has built in flying lessons that are actually quite good, I decided to head into town to pick it up. I had £10 of WH Smith vouchers and £10 of HMV vouchers, so figured I could get it quite cheaply. Observe the logic that followed. Neither of the two shops had any in stock. Neither did Game, John Lewis, Woolworths or Random Shop of Visual Engorgement. Dixons, however, had a copy. For £50. Screw, that. Probably. Well…no. I’m not paying £50. I do want it, though. Hmmm…No. I drove to the retail park. Comet had no copies. Curry’s had no copies. Toys ‘R Us had no copies. PC World had a copy! For £35. So I bought it. Well, I thought, I’ve saved money! That I had originally been planning to spend no more than £20 didn’t cross my mind.

Is there anything I couldn’t justify to myself, given enough time?

As pointed out by Lifehacker, del.icio.us now support tagging with a ‘for’ prefix. So if you bookmark a link and add for:krypto as a tag, it’ll pop up in my RSS reader. So feel free. But no porn. Ok, only nice porn. I suppose it’d help if I knew anybody else who used del.icio.us, but maybe some of you are secret bookmark junkies.

Why has my feed stopped working in Bloglines? Why why why? It works everywhere else…I hope FeedLounge gets out of Alpha soon - I want to play

• Manta Ray? - Something odd in a google map satellite photo - what is it?
• ZERO-G Zero Gravity Experience - Parabolic Flights - Philanthropists can feel free to get in touch
• Bendable Electronic Paper - This’ll be great for browsing photo collections from the sofa
• Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer’s Shortcut to Stronger Writing by C.J. Cherryh - Some useful tips, I think

A quick request. If you don’t intend to buy the latest Harry Potter novel, could you maybe just not bring it up? Please? If it’s in response to something somebody else says, fine, but how does you independently stating, loudly and brassily, that you’re not a Harry Potter fan add to the overall happiness level of the world? Are you just trying to make people who are feel bad? If you’ve read some and didn’t like them, well done! But why try to spoil other people’s fun? I’m really talking to those people who proudly proclaim never to have read anything by J.K. Rowling (or Dan Brown, or Stephen King…). I know, I know. You won’t read them on principle. Nobody really knows what that principle is, or the reasons it’s based upon - probably something to do with media hype or (the epitome of all evil) popularity - but I’m sure you think you’re very clever. Most superior. Yes, we all think you’re very superior. You are clearly a literary expert who can judge books without reading them. Now could you just shut up and go do something you enjoy? Thanks.

• Change of Course (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog) - Aaron takes steps to become a professional journalist
• Internet Archive: Details: Plan 9 From Outer Space - Seen ‘Ed Wood’? The ‘worst movie ever made’ depicted in that movie is now in the public domain and available for download.

I sat in the Wellesbourne Aviation waiting area, flicking through the various pilot’s magazines lying around. I was reading ‘50 ways to be professional’ when I heard:

Want to go flying?

I looked up and I swear it was Captain Jack, without the accent. If ever there was somebody who looked like an all-action-hero pilot, it was this guy. Not too long ago I’d have immediately felt inferior (yes, I was really that insecure) but my self-esteem has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of months, so I took it as a challenge. That’d be great, I said.

We headed out of the small building towards the Robin 200 that would be my first experience flying a small aircraft. It was a single-propeller, two seater plane with a large sticker inside saying ‘no spins’. After an introduction to the various controls we taxied around the airfield and lined up with the runway. The instructor asked if I wanted to take off, at which I laughed, assuming it was a joke. Turned out he was serious, though, so I did.

Hmm, how do I say this without betraying my cool, detached-blogger exterior? It was bloody brilliant! The skies were clear and it wasn’t too windy. I flew for pretty much the entire 25mins we were in the sky, only handing over control for the landing. We couldn’t go find my house as it’s within BHX’s airspace, but we took a look at Stratford and the various surrounding villages as well as spotting the gliding field I took off from on Thursday. I learnt how to alter the pitch and banking angle, as well as the rudder and throttle. There were even in-flight refreshments provided (polos); I expressed disappointment at there not being a waitress service and was told she’d ‘foxtrot-oscared’. After a good few turns, rises and falls I was told to head back to the airfield. After a second’s thought I pointed and said “it’s that way, right?”, to which he said “bloody maths and physics students”. So I was quite proud of myself
The only big mistake I made came right at the end, when I stepped out of the plane, onto the wing and jumped forward onto the ground. The first thing I’d been told was to always enter and exit the plane from the rear due to the presence of a rather large propeller at the front. Even when the power’s off there’s the potential for it to start spinning, apparently, so I must remember not to do that again!

I received a certificate and extremely scary brochure detailing the costs of training for a Private Pilot’s License. It’s pretty much a minimum of

I arrived at Snitterfield Gliding Club at about 1800 on Thursday evening and chatted with some other Spice members for a while as we watched the last of the afternoon session come in to land. Before long we were given an introduction to the gliders. The three we used were two-seaters with a closed canopy (they have one open-canopy that lets people on the ground hear the screams):

We all had to wear a parachute because of club regulations, although weren’t shown how to use it as apparently opening it below 2000ft, the maximum height we attained, wouldn’t do much good. Go figure
The ‘control tower’, incidentally, was an old double-decker bus. I thought that was great! I hung around taking photos while waiting for my turn. Whenever the gliders landed a man on a very cool buggy would head out and tow them back into position:

Finally, at around 1920, it was my turn, and I walked out into the field to be met by the pilot. I got into the front seat, and we waited for the winch to become free. One of the ground staff took this for me:

Not the most flattering photo, but it’s better than the other one
The glider is attached to the winch and after the slack is taken in there’s a short delay. Then, without much warning, the glider is pulled forwards very quickly indeed. It’s only a second or two before you’re up in the air, and at one hell of an angle.

For some reason I wasn’t nervous at all, either before or during the flight. I just enjoyed it! After the jarring cable release we were floating freely, and I looked around to see Stratford. We were up at about 2000ft and you could easily see the entire town. I tried to figure out which road was which, but then it was my turn to play pilot. It was extremely responsive and I took it through a few turns as well as playing with the pitch.

We did a long circle to come about above the gliding club:

and set down in a surprisingly smooth landing. It wasn’t as quiet as I’d been expecting - the wind was pretty loud - but it was easy to have a conversation with the pilot so can’t have been too noisy.

You could pay

A few weeks back I went to a Spice preview evening. I’d read the brochure and thought it seemed pretty interesting, so one Monday night headed into Sutton Coldfield for the free presentation. Like they said at the meeting, it’s easier to describe what Spice isn’t. It’s not an adventure sports club, or a dating agency, or an outdoors club. It was described to me as a large group of people - 10,000 members nationwide and 3,000 in Birmingham - who do interesting things. The thing that surprised me was the sheer number of activities. I hoped that there’d be an event to attend every weekend, or something, but it’s way more than that. Here’s the next week, for example:

Sat 16th:

• Come and Try Mountain Biking Sutton Park
• Flying Lesson Wellesbourne Airfield, Stratford on Avon
• Helicopter Pleasure Flights Gloucestershire Airport, beside M5 J 11
• Jet Skiing Church Wilne, Nr East Mids Airport
• Multi Activity Day Carsington Water Peak District
• Paintball Massacre Bassetts Pole
• Riverboat Shuffle - Jazzamatazz Upton upon Severn, Worcs
• Rudyard Reservoir Ramble Rudyard Reservoir, Northern Peak Dist
• Team Challenge on a Double Decker! Join Brumbus at Colmore Row bus stops
• Wightwick Manor Tour 3 miles west of Wolverhampton

Sunday 17th:

• Aromatherapy Workshop Lea Marston Hotel, just off A4097
• Badminton Afternoon at Barr Beacon Barr Beacon Leisure Centre
• Cannock Chase Improvers Mountain Biking Birches Valley Visitor Centre
• Cruise to Chocolate Heaven Gas Street, Birmingham
• Drumming Workshop at Madhouse Studios Madhouse Studios
• Llama (and Camel!) Trek with Lunch Speech House, centre of Forest of Dean
• Monmouth and Offas Dyke Ramble Monmouth, Forest of Dean area
• Servant of Two Masters Harvington Hall, Kidderminster
• Water Fun Day Darley Abbey, Near Derby

Monday 18th:

• Badminton NIA Community Hall, St Vincent Street
• Preview Evening (Sutton) Ramada Hotel, Penns Lane, Walmley

Tuesday 19th:

• Botanical Gardens Tour Outside Main Entrance, Botanical Gardens
• RAC Control Centre Visit Brockhurst Crescent, Bescott, Walsall
• Unihoc NIA Community Hall, St Vincent Street

Wednesday 20th:

• Bodymoor Heath Evening Ramble Bodymoor Heath - Kingsbury/Sutton area
• Evening Horse Ride Middleton Equestrian Centre
• Lichfield Bike Amble Evening Lichfield
• Pilates Session Club Motivation, Solihull Moathouse, Hom
• Rounders Holly Lane Social Club
• Tamworth Evening Walk By Robert Peel in Market Place
• Wolverhampton Pub Night Goose in the City

Thursday 21st:

• Beer and Skittles at Lea Marston Lea Marston Hotel, on A4097 nr J9 of M42
• Stoneleigh Abbey Evening Tour Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
• Volleyball NIA Community Hall, St Vincent Street

Friday 22nd:

• Beginners Luxury Horse Riding Weekend Peak District & Sherwood Forest
• Exmoor and the Somerset Coast Weekend The Beach Hotel in Minehead
• Luxury Experienced Riders Weekend Peak District & Sherwood Forest
• Owl Prowl / Dusk Walk Wyre Forest Discovery Centre
• Sherwood Forest Bike Amble Weekend Nottinghamshire
• Soul and Motown Party at 52

Woohoo We like Amazon.

Back home from the concert, which I enjoyed. I read this morning that no cameras were allowed so didn’t take my 300D, which turned out to be a mistake. We were extremely close to the front and I would have had the opportunity for some great shots, I think. Everybody else had their digital cameras so I guess that’s just put on the website to cover themselves, or something. I’ll know for next time, anyway.

It was a great opportunity to test out the camera built in to my Nokia 7610. The results, straight from the phone and without manipulation of any kind, are here. The digital zoom shots are, predictably, not all that great, but the standard wide-angles aren’t half bad - certainly good enough for snapshots when the ‘proper’ camera isn’t around. I took some video footage too, but I’m not sure how to convert that from the.3gp format; I’ll figure that out at the weekend.

I put all my gliding photos onto flickr this afternoon but didn’t have a chance to write it up yet. I haven’t entirely finished their tags and descriptions either, but if you want to check them out they’re here.