Kevin

There are lots of warm tributes about this morning for Kevin Greening, who died at the weekend. He really was a lovely guy.

He probably wouldn't be surprised that a Facebook tribute group sprang up double-quick, or even that the news story is the most-read page on the BBC News website. But, in a gently embarrased way, he'd have liked some of the quotes from people throughout the radio industry. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say a bad word about him.

He first came to Jazz FM when I was programme director and he was still doing shifts on Five Live. He sounded comfortable from the very first link. Just hearing him on air saying "Hello, I'm Kevin" was fun. He always brought alive the different styles of his radio stations, wherever he was.

So, he was great - to work with, to know, and to hear on the radio.

Tiny and all-metal

I saw this Fuji camera and thought it looked very cool and retro. Only in that colour, though. The purple doesn't seem to do so much for it. And here it is, reviewed.

How it should be done

Now available online for the first time, the Editors' Codebook, by which publishers have promised each other they will live.

Hipper phones

With Dior and Tag Heuer bringing out mobiles next year, the phone in your pocket is the next big battleground for fashion, says the Independent, in an interesting article which claims that some people have an extra mobile phone "for going out or special occasions".

Boxed

4% of us think that Boxing Day is so named because it's a day for families to iron out their differences with a punch-up.

15% think it's for sports matches - football, boxing etc.

(It's actually from Victorian days when gifts were boxed up and given to the poor.)

Yonk

Favourite TV character of the moment: Yonk Allen from The Class on E4.

Written by the team behind Friends, it's the story of a class in primary school, reunited twenty years later. Yonk is a legendary American footballer, who's recently got married to Nicole (one of the class). Not the brightest button in the box, he lives in a big house and acts dumb, but he has his pride, and his part-time career promoting BBQs on TV.

He gets some of the best lines, including this, when bamboozled by a careful explanation (and I intend to use this line myself, with a look of relaxed bafflement, when I can):

"Man, that's more words than I care to take in."

Wonderful

Here's a revelation from the South Bank Show, in a special on Eric Clapton.

You know the story from Wonderful Tonight: it's late in the evening, she's wondering what clothes to wear. She puts on her make-up and brushes her long blonde hair. And then she asks me, "Do I look all right?" And I say, "Yes, you look wonderful tonight."

(There's more.)

We go to a party and everyone turns to see this beautiful lady that's walking around with me. And then she asks me, "Do you feel all right?" And I say, "Yes, I feel wonderful tonight." I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes. And the wonder of it all is that you just don't realise how much I love you.

Sweet, huh?

Or maybe not quite so.

Here's what Eric said to Melvyn:

"People when they listen to Wonderful Tonight imagine that this song was written in the throes of great passion and adoration, whereas in fact they were written out of frustration and impatience. And it doesn't matter. That's the amazing thing about music, that you can listen to it with your own parameter. You don't have to know how it was written or why it was written."

All the way

Back for another successful year, Santa and the reindeer (with the Drifters in support)

Your name in snow

The Penguin Show. Just enter your name, and let the penguin do the rest.

Walking in the air

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Snowman - and he's got a website, too.

Her Majesty

The Queen's on YouTube.

He's on his way

If you've not seen it before, you can follow Santa's progress, courtesy of Norad's highly sophisticated tracking equipment, here.

Click with pride

So, you're doing a Powerpoint presentation, and you don't want to fiddle around with the mouse on a makeshift desk? Mogo.

It's all about love

She doesn't give interviews very often - so when she does, it's worth a read.

J.K.Rowling talks to Time.

Lost

Losing it this Yule?

310 million pounds-worth of stuff goes missing every Christmas, we learn today. Nearly a third of us misplace something - sometimes before we've even got home from the shops.

Women are twice as likely to lose things as men, but with chaps, it's more likely to be down to drink.

Sharp

Wicked kitchen knives from Nippon.

I want it, and I want it cheap

Now emerging as the best site to compare online prices: pricerunner.

Ho ho ho

From a new survey, here's Britain's Worst Cracker Joke:

What's Santa's favourite pizza?

One that's deep pan, crisp, and even.

K.I.T.T.

Oh good heavens. It's the Knight Rider car.

Cash back

The idea of the My Voucher Codes website is to offer you, completely legitimately, discount codes which you can enter when you're checking out from your online retailer. Pounds to be saved.

Babbitty Rabbitty

The mystery bidder of a highly-prized J.K. Rowling limited edition book turns out to be Amazon.

Objects of desire

That'll be an apple corer, then - one of many lovely things at Skandium's website.

Laughing

The web's got everything. Here's a brief history of canned laughter.

Sketches in a plastic bag

Berlin bank vault plans found in the bin by a hairdresser.

The rather nice bank had just been renovated at a cost of £100 million.

A spokesman for the bank says they will be "looking into how the plans could have ended up in the bin".

You bet they will.

Sticking perfection

This is just the best invention ever, particularly for this time of year. It's the Scotch tape dispenser. There you can see it, to the left - the blue thingie which is held to that hand by a piece of elastic fabric. When you need sticky tape, and your hands are full of present, there's a handy strip just presenting itself, ready to rip off and stick on. I speak from experience - it's fantastic.

Voice biometrics

I came across Agnitio's website by accident, and it's worth a nose around, for another vision of security's future.

The perils of parrots

In Huddersfield, Billy the Parrot keeps learning his owner's mobile ringtones.

And mimicking them as soon as he's alone in the room.

Then laughing when his owner rushes back to answer.

Homer's working for you

If yesterday's robot dinosaur didn't do it for you, how about a robot Homer?

The buzz

Online applications, which need nothing more than your browser and (sometimes) Flash, are burgeoning. Google Notebook already gives you word processing on the web, but Buzzword, just bought by Adobe, goes further.

Still sharp

To Shropshire, where Pussywillow the cat is 26.

Yep, 26.

From hatching to juvenile

Pleo - a baby dinosaur robot, just for you.

Nudo

Adopt an olive tree and receive its produce for a year.

Big hair

As Dolly Parton goes to Yorkshire, a reminder of a favourite quote: "The higher the hair, the closer you are to God."

Comprehensively entooled

Build your own Mercedes.

Knock 'em out

Now, I know it's from my own company's website, but Elf Bowling really is pretty good fun.

Please look after him

Paddington Bear's back next year in a new adventure, written by the original author and with a picture by the original illustrator, both in their 80s, fifty years on from Paddington's first publication.

Dance like S-Club

Now the Wii really can make you fit.

Styled up

The Koodos concept seems simple enough. Designer stuff, cheap. And apparently it's all good.

The sheep that can let herself out

Never underestimate a sheep.

Drinking in the New Forest

I'm not sure why I made a note of this one now, but it must just be a few good reviews - like this one from the Telegraph, or these from punters. The Royal Oak at Fritham is (I think) here.

Funny business

Like YouTube but just full of funny stuff - Comedybox.

The force

These figures have been out for a while, but I've only just stumbled over them.

In the 2001 census, the most popular places to be a Jedi were Brighton and Oxford.

It went down less well in the North East and North Wales.

What does it all tell us? This.

Gwarlingo

A grand collection of unusual words - Toujours Tingo. Find it reviewed with examples here.

Benvenuto

Oh wow. Look who's on the internet. Carluccio's.

Freeze early for Christmas

Prices at a ten year high, the harvest down 10%, it's a crisis.

A cranberry crisis.

Buy now and freeze 'em. They freeze beautifully apparently.

Potted

I think you can probably figure out from the picture what this is. Ah yes. A cricket ball pen pot. They do a paper clip holder too.

Hum it back

So, you thought Shazam was clever? When you hear a song in a bar, and you just can't name it, that's the service for you.

But what about those times when you're sitting at home, humming it. What then? Midomi.

A nice big dollop

As Heinz release their latest financial results, we learn that £100 million was spent on tomato ketchup in the UK and Ireland in the last year.

That's a record. It's also enough for 73 million average-sized bottles of ketchup.

In the palm of your hand

It's nearly a year since we came across the Sony e-book reader, and it seems no closer to mass-market. Maybe this will change it.

Why? Because it's from Amazon. And we know they're big.

It's called the Kindle - and it's currently only available in America. But here's where you see the scale of it - it's the Kindle store. Download 'em direct.

Oh, and it's sold out.

Cutting

Science meets the arts at Edge.

Desert fox

65 years after it was a lost, the bag of a World War II soldier has been found in the Sahara.

Inside, the suggestion that there may have been two ladies missing him deeply whilst he was at war.

He married neither, and lived to 87.

Oddly compulsive

The Buddha Machine's out of stock again. Brian Eno's had more than his share. The reviews say it's fab, though.

All the same

Here's a site I heard about on Radio 4's excellent iPM programme:

6 billion Others is a website project bringing "direct testimony" from people across the world, talking about their lives, hopes, fears and feelings. It proves (I think) just how similar we all are.

It launches officially next year, but a few films are already live, and they're compelling.

Our world keeps turning

The lead singer of Midnight Oil is now in the Australian Cabinet.

Opti-quick

Now, I'm very happy with my kettle, which means (unless I'm very inventive) that I have no possible excuse to buy one of these.

It can only be called amazing - having seen it actually doing its stuff on the Gadget Show, I can confirm, it boils water in three seconds.

Is it Christmas?

www.isitchristmas.com

Pink with flappy wings

The most expensive Russian thing ever.

Classy mic

Apparently one of the most sophisticated dicatphone or portable recording units you can get - the Edirol R-09R. Which is no less than you'd expect for £300.

Aesthetics and ideas

Here's a bit of midweek class, from Arts & Letters Daily.

4000 texts a month

Thanks to the New Zealand Herald for this key report. It's the story of the teenager who's smashed (and I do mean smashed) the world record for blindfold texting. How long did it take him to write 160 characters on his trusty mobile? 45 seconds, that's how many.

Hot from Korea

Here's Viewty. What a name. It's the new baby from LG. Looking at the spec, that's one special camera.

Veggie box

That's the picture of a carrot on a van. A very large carrot, clearly, or perhaps a very small van.

You've heard of the idea, though. Organic vegetables, in a box. Diligently working on your behalf, John's blog has now tried it out, from these people at Riverford. They're great.

Searching and rescuing mushrooms

Here's the story of the investigation launched by the Thai air force, concerned that one of their pilots might have been using a search and rescue helicopter for the wrong reasons.

Mushroom picking.

For his mum.

Losing them

House of Marbles - endless hours of fun, delivered to your door.

Tubed

Amongst the fun which John's blog has missed during its little break is the new London Underground map, now including more sections of overground network to the north. You can download it in quality here. Bottom right, at last, is a credit for the map's original designer:

"This diagram is an evolution of the original design conceived in 1931 by Harry Beck."

There's more about that evolution here, and at the excellent, newly re-opened London Transport Museum.

So much nicer than this, which shows the Underground the way it really is. Who needs reality?

One more map for luck? I can't find the Harry Beck design for the Paris metro map, which was rejected (although promised to be on display at the Transport Museum), so here's a funky Moscow map. I'm liking the red line.

Look away

Now, not wanting to worry you or anything, but watching the cosmos may be destroying it. At least, I think that's what the story's saying.

Not forgotten

Hello.

I'm still here.

John's blog is on a break. Back Sunday.

Sparkle

It's hard to know why you would want these, but great to be assured that they will keep their brilliance.