Today we are all Seagulls

Environmental campaigners claimed the stadium would ruin the views for the 32 million visitors who walk across the Downs each year.

Brighton stadium given go-ahead

I know Falmer (the site of Brighton's new football stadium) well: I attended one of the two universities contained within the village, both of which have thousands of students, sports pitches, accommodation - and there's a massive Racquet club in one of the as well..

The Esporta Brighton Health and Racquet Club situated on the Falmer Campus was opened in November 1998. With three pools, 10 indoor tennis courts, a large fitness suite, squash courts and an activity studio – this is one of the South East’s premier leisure facilities.

Esporta Brighton Health and Racquet Club, Falmer

Another thing about Falmer is that I drive every day to work on the bypass [A27] that goes throught the middle of the village. Falmer is after all on or just outside Brighton city limits (one of the reasons it's taken so long - Falmer is in East Sussex) - it's hardly the "Gateway to the Downs".

Eventually it was time to drop down to the A27. There I left the South Downs Way and walked along the noisy highway for two miles until I reached Falmer rail station and the train back to Hove.

A South Downs Way Story - Southease to Falmer

I don't see 32 million people walking alongside the A27. I don't see 32 million people when I'm up at the [other] Falmer sports centre playing squash.. I don't see 32 million people in either university. These environmental campaigners are lying, by the evidence of my own eyes.

The other reason it's taken this long is that old class thing, because it's nasty old football after all. Well, I'm looking forward to the very proud day when I can take my children to Falmer to see the Brighton Aces. Thank you John Prescott, thank you very much.

Flaunter

I fail 9/10 of the weblog usability top ten design mistakes. A choice quote:

Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naïve beginner who shouldn't be taken too seriously.

But how did they know..?

Hit ENTER. It will now ask for your password. If you don't know it, it is probably "bovinity."

Even down to the trailing full-stop. Any suggestions for a replacement?

Remove post?

Google's Remove Result feature allows blocking entire domains from search results. Sounds useful for blocking those annoying sites which always respond to queries somehow.. personalised search must be enabled (ie Google account required) - note this records your search history, although you can stop it from doing so.

Curmudgeon-stylee

Evey time I use my browser's back button on our bank's website I get this message and have to log in again:

The browser's navigation functions and keyboard shortcuts have been disabled for security reasons and because the internet banking service has been designed to be more accessible to all customers, including those with disabilities.

Oh, really. I'm sure your disabled customers thank you for breaking the navigation metaphor used by every other web page and then providing a hopelessly inadequate internal navigation system with gems like:

clicking on 'back' will take you to your 'home' page

That's the back button on the web page, not the browser of course. They also have links that aren't visibly cued as links, a failure of accessibility and just bad design. Still, my cheque has cleared ;-)

Thanks for that

The Guardian does a weekly tv guide/review/listings on saturdays. This week's issue describes Brighton as "somewhere people go to drink wheat beer and dress like Australians". Says more about the man than the place if you ask me (I'm guessing that 'Rohn' is a male name)

Ballsmer

Fancy working for Microsoft? Read this first.

No one touched my balls

I stood on an airport concourse for fifteen minutes with my wife and baby daughter the other day so we could queue to be photographed for use between the landing gate and baggage collection: a distance which would be a hundred yards in any well-designed airport (about half a mile at Gatwick, then). Then I had to report a lost bag and was whisked back airside with only my printed ticket email for identification. Hmm. Still, if I ever get to go to a football game again at least I won't have to put up with this indignity.

Uh... this is awkward

I can't get my G4 to recognise my Apple Pro Keyboard's layout - it thinks, for example, that the @ symbol is above the 2, when in fact it is of course "

Edit: it's a Danish keyboard...

Katzen's humus

1.5 cups raw chickpeas, soaked and boiled, drained and mashed
3 cloves garlic, mashed
Dash of tamari [a Japanese soya sauce, very pure]
Juice of 2 lemons
3/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup packed chopped parsley
black pepper, dash cayenne, salt if you like it.
1/4 cup minced spring onions

Prepare chickpeas, add other ingredients, chill.