Stuart Homfray The Weblog

Note On Spam From Here

If you receive an unsolicited email from my domain (stuarthomfray.co.uk), please note that it’s almost certainly some other sod spamming you. It’s not me, I wish that it would stop (I get so many bounced emails every day) and I apologise unreservedly for any anger or irritation that it causes.

The only email address that I am actually using to communicate is made up of my first name, ‘at’ my domain name. Any spam will (usually, as far as I can tell) be made up of bunch of random letters, ‘at’ my domain name.

Once again, sorry about this (I wish I could catch up with the little prats doing it. I’d love to have a ‘chat’ with ‘em!)

Plankton Can Make Their Own Clouds

A study funded by NASA has found that phytoplankton can create their own clouds when ultraviolet rays become too strong, protecting themselves from excessive exposure. [Found inside Rebecca’s pocket]

Website Cross-Pollination

Wouldn’t it be great if you could look at your site in another sites layout? Well, the Website Mixmaster at Mina Naguib’s TopFX site let’s you do exactly that! The page lists examples such as “Google and Uses of the word f**k“, or “Yahoo and PornoChicks“, but I’ve been far more sensible with my testing:

• “Socialist Worker and The Telegraph” (the best of both worlds?)
• “Linux.org and Microsoft” (where DO we want to go today?)
• “The Conservative Party and 10 Downing Street” (you might wonder whether there’s a difference - I couldn’t POSSIBLY comment…)

The Launch of Blogstakes

Blogstakes, launched yesterday, is a new kind of sweepstakes, set up with …two winners for every prize: a person who entered and the site that referred the winning entry, so it turns out everyone’s a winner (where everyone is defined as both the entrant and the referrer!)

There are 2 opening competitions: the first is Free BrowserCam For A Year (this one’s useful for web designers as BrowserCam displays screen grabs from various browser/operating system combinations), and Clip-n-Seal Fresh Party Pack (basically, for those who like to eat!)

Now normally I wouldn’t dream of plugging something like this in such an overtly capitalist style (well it makes me feel like a capitalist :) but luckily, the guy running this seems quite genuine. His name is Brian Alvey, and he’s producer and host of the Meet The Makers series of “behind-the-screens” interviews with creative people working in the technical world, and backend developer at Zeldman’s Happy Cog Studios

C’mon! Is it wrong to want, just a little bit…?

Latest Top Secret MGM DVD Film Series Proposal!!

A confidential email that has been passed to me from a spy within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talks about a planned new trilogy of films about Jesus. Although still at a very early stage, the proposed film titles are:

• Jesus - his birth, early life, and search for his real father
• Jesus II: Messiah Under Fire - realisation of his true vocation, friendships, relationships, betrayal, and dinner parties
• Jesus Threesus - the final years, ascension, reunion with his father, and dealing with inacccurate biographers

Each DVD will feature extras such as commentaries, interviews, games, and competitions, and a boxed set will feature an extra DVD titled ‘Holier Than Thou: The Making of the Jesus Chronicles‘, discussing the origins of the story, the actors, and an interview with the director of all three films, Paul Anderson