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I usually get my morning news from two sources – the liars and cheaters at the BBC, and CNN. CNN.com had been getting more and more video-oriented so I had been finding their site less and less useful but the new redesigned webpage takes uselessness to a whole new level. There is hardly any actual news on the web page these days. So, this morning, it came off my bookmarks. Need to find a replacement, maybe MSNBC?

• So You Think You Can Dance is easily the best reality show on TV
• Why is there not one, but two, shows on right now to do with getting the words right to a song? Ack.
• What’s the deal with the Bollywood, ahem, dancer getting to the final 20 in America’s Got Talent? Talk about crap!
• Everything else is even worse, I can’t even bear to look at Pirate Master.

Well almost.

• In case you missed it, the 60GB PS3 is now down to $499 and if you hurry you can buy it now and get 6 free (though admittedly lame) Blu-ray discs, and a free remote controller to go, with it. No, there still aren’t many good games but one reason to buy now is that the Playstation2 emulation will soon be software-based soon rather than in hardware.
• The rumours are flying about the iPhone nano. Much smaller and much cheaper are good, though I still think that I don’t really want a phone-capable iPhone.
• Finally, there is word of the iPhone Shuffle – it will be even smaller than the nano, and will only be capable of dialing random people from your contacts list.

Of course several people came into work this morning with their shiny (but fingerprint smudged) new iPhone. I got to cop a feel of one and figured I would write the following mini-review:

• wow, much smaller than I thought
• the user interface is really to die for
• yikes, the EDGE network is s-l-o-w
• the earpiece is way too quiet to actually hear a conversation on, needs a headphone
• when they finally bring out a media-only version, I want it.

As with most calls to my cell phone, I didn’t answer the one today and unusually the caller left me a voicemail. Well, it was a pleasant lady claiming she was from Google and did I want to apply for a job at their new Irvine campus? And to prove it, I later got an email with some job details and a repeat of the request.

I applied for a job with them in Santa Monica a few years ago and was turned down, and it appears that my resume was still in the system for my name to come up. I’m not sure I am Google material, and I am really not sure if I am ready to work in Irvine but it sure was nice to get a call from a company that most everyone would love to work for.

And in case my employer is watching? Thanks for last week’s bonus and I have a doctor’s appointment next week, yes, that’s it.

Sat in our office after lunch, maybe 12.30, 1pm and there was a sound like a guy dropping a ton of bricks on the roof; twice. My first thought was an earthquake except that it came from the top down, not the ground up. Later on someone worked out that it was the double sonic boom of the space shuttle as it came back to earth over California. Cool.

Say it with me people:

• No freakin’ inline PDF display!

Arghhh, it’s driving me mad to have to download the file before I can display it. I end up with a desktop covered in temporary pdf files to delete. I’m switching to Safari.

Yesterday I had to go the local INS office to be fingerprinted for my FBI name check, step one of the citizenship process. Well, step two if you consider applying step one? Pretty relaxed atmosphere, very quiet, just me and two Mexican dudes who seemed to be struggling to fill in their personal details form. Anyway, a few pushes of the digits on the machine later and I was on my way out. The driver of the bus to Gitmo seemed disappointed not to be taking me this time.

I asked how long before my interview and was given a shrug. The office is moving buildings and as a consequence they have no idea which box my file is in, and therefore no idea where it is right now. The officer told me to forget about it and then it would be a nice surprise when they get in touch.

During the live text commentary of the England vs Estonia football match:

We’ve just heard that Finland’s game with Belgium was held up for six minutes when an owl sat on the crossbar at one end and then flew and sat on the crossbar at the other end. Nothing to do with Estonia against England, just thought you’d be interested. What a hoot that must have been.