June and I are going up to Covent Garden in London tomorrow. There's a Food Fair we're both interested in seeing and for the evening, I've managed to get a couple of tickets for the live TV Show "Fame Academy". I'll let you know how it goes!

The car's been in the garage for the past three days, slowly running up a huge bill. The last bits and pieces are being sorted out today and yes, despite the man from AutoGlass doimng his best to fix it, I needed a new windscreen. (See below.) The windscreen is covered by the insurance of course, but there's a fify pound excess I can't get out of. In the overall scheme of keeing the car running, I suppose it's a minor point because when I pick it up tonight, the bill's going to be over £1,100!

This cushy marvel they're calling an "eCliner" (no, I didn't make that up - honest) combines the comfort of your Dad's old recliner with the power of the Internet into one high-tech chair. Now get this, the chair comes with a Sony WebTV plus Internet receiver and keyboard so that you can cruise the Web and compose emails right on your TV set. A foldaway table holds the keyboard or your laptop. The chair's left armrest houses an AC adapter and a phone line connector, while the right armrest contains a drink holder and storage for remote controls and things. If I put one in Steve's Shop, I'd want one, so I won't. (If you can follow that.) If you really want to see what it looks like, Click here.

I received an email from 'Web Girl' Dana Greenlee of 'Webtalk Guys' fame. I thought I'd share it with you. She says, "I read with delight your comments on Mike Daisey. I, too, am reading his book now - page 157. It is screamingly funny, particularly as I worked on that "fortress on the hill" (Amazon) in '99-'00. I saw Jeff Bezos in the cafeteria and heard his laugh in the halls. It was a wonderful and exhausting time. And I always had a dog sleeping at my feet as I reviewed the finer points of paper napkins and vinyl tablecloths. (I wrote editorial reviews for the Kitchen store.) Rob and I saw Mike on stage in Seattle and he's been on our show twice."

Here are some links including two articles Daisey wrote about being close to the World Trade Center on Sept 11th 2001 and the two radio interviews with the WebTalk Guys. Sept 11th Article 1 | Sept 11th Article 2 | Article 3 | Feb.01 interview | June 01 interview.

Just been to get the car MOTd. It failed of course - but because it has a 1cm spot in the windscreen where a stone has hit it. Apparently, an 8mm spot is OK, but 10mm spot is not. So for the sake of 2mm, I have to have a new windscreen. Daft. A 1cm spot does not stop me seeing what's ahead! Good job the screen is insured. It's being done tomrrow (Sunday) between 12 and 2. Retest is on Monday when hopefully everything should be OK. No wonder insurance premiums go up!

About a year ago, I came across Mike Daisey. If you're a Nethead (as I occasionally admit to being) you'll like like him! He worked at Amazon.com in the 'fairly' early days and managed to clock up a couple of years in Customer Services during the teething period before Amazon.com became the smoothly operating organisation it is now. When he left, he followed one of his original careers and turned to writing and presenting a one man show entitled "21 Dog Years at Amazon.com". Not being resident in the USA, the chances of my seeing it were slim, so I was delighted when the book appeared: Twenty-one Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com. I'm reading it now and it's extremely funny. If you're into what makes a dotcom tick, or just want a fun read at the expense (occasionally) of Jeff Bezos, go and get yourself a copy. Make sure you buy it from Amazon.com (or .co.uk) of course! if you're in the UK like me, just click the picture or here. Highly recommended.

I've just changed this week's Fun Link in the right hand bar. Play Snake! I remember spending about four days writing a program from scratch in Tandy TRS-80 Level II Basic to do this during a holiday in the Isle of Wight about 20 years ago. (I was a very sad person even in those times!) It was amazing though what you can do with a monochrome graphics resolution of 128 x 72! Matthieu was there with a young friend and they both spent hours playing it! Somewhere, I have a photograph of them doing so, I'll see if I can dig it out. Those were the days.

Many years later, I reprogrammed the same game again in Francois Lionet's brilliant Amos Language on the Amiga 500 for Claire and Tania.

Now of course, you can find "Snake" on mobile phones, added almost as an afterthought. Anyhow, go on play a game - just for old times sake - it's still addictive! Click the link and size the new window to suit your processor speed (smaller goes faster).

Maybe this has been around for ages and I'm totally out of date, but I've just come across Googlefight.com. It works like this, go to the site and type in two short words or phrases to compare, such as "Bells" vs. "Whistles" (Bells win by 1,690,000 to 376,000!) Trying "Death Star" vs. "Rebel Alliance" results in Death Star - 2,150,000, Rebel Alliance - 160,000; your days are numbered, Luke! Basically, Google does a count up of Web pages that feature each of the chosen words and tells you which one wins! Simple, and great fun. Click here and try "British" vs. "Americans" ! :-)

As regular readers will know, I get a weekly report of the activity on this site and am always amazed by the people that come here and the things they have been looking for. Usually I can work out how they reached me, but there is always a surprise or two. The report tells me the phrases that were typed into the search engines that led people to stephenbell.net. How on earth "can you tell me some amazing and funny facts about dolphins" led to this site I'm not quite sure!

However, last week there were 483 Unique Visitors, (gosh - highest number yet) of whom 393 Visited Once and 90 came twice or more. 38 landed directly on the Music page rather than the Home page and 24 people left this site via one of my links on the links page. Interesting stuff.

As I say, some of the search phrases used are always interesting. Out of the hundred or more reported this week, let me just mention, "circular transportation facilitation device", "john smiths tv ad download", "sony aibo lawyer" (strange combination of words) "jwp information services" and "lantec uk ltd" (now those I can place!) "saved by the bell" (interesting) and how about "andy pandy egg cup"! What?! :-)

Roll on next week's report, always a source of amazement and amusement. If you're reading this and you have no idea how or why you got here, well, welcome anyway, and I hope you find something of interest.

www.stephenbell.net has won an award! Nobody's more amazed than me. If you look in the top right hand corner, you'll see the Golden Web Award logo that I am now at liberty to proudly display. (Which I do!) Click the logo if you want to know more.

I went on a course today at the Institute of Directors in the heart of London. I decided to travel by train and underground. I'm sure it was a wise move. On the underground I was travelling from Paddington to Charing Cross on the Bakerloo line. An announcement in the train told us that Regents Park station was closed because of problems with the lifts and the train would not be stopping there.

They were right, it didn't stop but it did slow to a crawl going though the station which gave me and all the other passengers the opportunity to scan the faces of the people on the platform who were registering surprise, amazement, annoyance, disbelief or whatever emotion seemed right to them, as the upmteenth train (to them) sailed though without stopping! Personally, I think London Underground might have done well to tell the people waiting for trains there, that they weren't stopping! Anyway, how did they get onto the platform if there were no lifts? Another mystery of commuting in London!

Congratulations to ScaryDuck for winning the Guardian Best British Blog of the Year award. A notable and noble achievement, well done. Give it a read sometime; click the duck to be transported.

Be frightened, be inspired. Read This from Seth Godin.

Well sort of anyway. Viral Marketing is an established art and science these days. If you haven't heard the term, the aim is to get people to tell each other about a product, company or service. In other words, spreading "the word" like a virus. One of the ways this is being done online, is through addictive little games. Quick to download, quick to play with a nice little payoff - and always with the opportunity to send for some information and "Tell a friend". There's nothing wrong with this at all. It's a great idea, as long as your email address (or that of the friends you recommend) is not added to a spam list. To be fair, spammers don't usually spend the time or money or go to these lengths to get an email address - or even a thousand; they want tens of millions!

So - I'm about to "sneeze" - yes - honestly - that's what they call the act of passing on a viral marketing idea. To see how viral marketing is done well, click the link below. Notice how you're offered something for free (something useful too) and how you're invited to pass the game on. But, also notice how careful the company is to give you loads of reassurance that your email address is safe in their hands. Take my word for it - it is. This is a reputable organisation. What do they do? They send emails for a living, but NOT spam! So what's the game you'll be playing? It's called SpammerTorture - get your own back on a series of animated Spammers! You can click here in safety, I promise you.

As today is the 1st October the last quarter of the year is upon us. You have one week to sign up for the fourth season of the Fantasy Film League. Basically, it's a global web-based interactive game that is free to join and free to play. You have $70m to spend on one director and six actors from a list of about 100 directors and 1000 actors. Each cast member has an individual price depending on how successful they are. Once you have chosen your FFL cast and spent your fantasy money on them, you're in the game. Each time an actor in, or the Director of, your Fantasy Film appears in a real film, then you will score points in the game - exactly how many points depends on how well the films they appeared in did at the US and UK Box Offices.

No two players can have exactly the same cast and Director. Mine for this season are: Dan Ackroyd, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, Mey Ryan and Patrick Stewart. Director: Ridley Scott. Total: $70m to the penny. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing. There are no fees and no prizes - do it just for the fun of it. Go on!