This year's annual Charity Christmas Puzzle has now been posted, and is available to download. 

This, the 19th annual Puzzle that Gordon Gray has set, has a theme designed to help completion and will appeal to people who enjoy doing Crossword puzzles, such as in the Daily Telegraph (though it is not a Crossword puzzle). Puzzlers have plenty of time to find the answers and Puzzles should be returned, with donation, by 24 January. 

Four winners will each receive a £25 prize.
Everyone who enters will qualify for a £25 prize draw. 

So what are you waiting for, give it a go and download the Christmas Puzzle now.

I've been looking for these for years, not remembering exactly what the aliens were called and always ending up with pages about Dan Akroyd rather than Harry Enfield.

Altogether now... TREE! ... SHOP! ... CAR! ... Baby Jeeesus ...

[English For Aliens Pt 1]

[English For Aliens Pt 2]

[English For Aliens Pt 3 - Dinner Party]

Good evening all! It seems I haven't written much of late so here's a little tidbit of the stuff that has been keeping me busy for the past few months.

First of all there was the quick revamp of Blackstar Search, but mainly I have been putting together a new planning website called simply Do I Need Planning Permission? for Orchard Planning Solutions.

Continue reading about Do I Need Planning Permission? over on theogray.com/blog.

This year's annual Charity Christmas Puzzle has now been posted, and is available to download.

This, the 18th annual Puzzle that Gordon Gray has set, has a theme designed to help completion and will appeal to people who enjoy doing Crossword puzzles, such as in the Daily Telegraph (though it is not a Crossword puzzle). Puzzlers have plenty of time to find the answers and Puzzles should be returned, with donation, by 25 January.

Four winners will each receive a £25 prize.
Everyone who enters will qualify for a £25 prize draw.

So what are you waiting for, give it a go and download the Christmas Puzzle now.

It's Saturday, and supposedly the weekend... unfortunately I still have the FBYM newsletter to put together, then there's the many photos from the summer courses that need sorting and publishing on the site plus I really should get some up on the FBYM Facebook page to keep that alive... There's the fact that I really should be in work right now finishing the next release, rather than sat at home knackered and catching up on the miriad of other things that I've got on my list, but work is just going to have to wait until Monday now... And instead of doing stuff to get it out of the way I'm now sat here writing this...!

On a lighter note, Neverwhere is an excellent read and has allowed me to drop out of reality with Tanglefoot next to me for ½ hour in the sun before realising that I really have to get on with computer stuff inside again... I guess the point of this ramble is... RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Oh, and I'm also very confused by the Japanese version of One Missed Call that I watched last night!

This feels like it really should be a joke, but allegedly it's real.

Microsoft Sphere currently includes a "send to dark side" feature, and obligatory Pong game! Who comes up with this stuff, and how do I get to work there?! Sounds like a place where much jollity occurs coming up with ideas.

Full article: Microsoft's Sphere display in action

Quite suprisingly Donington Park is to host the British GP from 2010 - more here. I never guessed the speculation would actually turn into a reality.

And on the same day, Bernie also announced he's gonna stop badgering Melbourne to host a night race for a few years which should be music to Pete's ears!

Another strange one that we've just come across which seems to have no useful online help about is why certain Property definitions are marked as ReadOnly when you drop an OCX into .Net...

Read the full OCX wrappers for .Net - The joy of AxInterop entry on theogray.com/blog.

Crap... Max Mosley wins FIA vote

For those that don't know, I recently had the honour/pleasure/daunting task of being a judge at the Miss Bedfordshire regional heat of this year's Miss England competition. It was great fun apart from the mad rush of trying to score the contestants in up to 5 different categories at a time during the 30-40 seconds that they walked up on stage, posed, and walked off again! For those eagle eyed readers, you may even spot this judge sporting a healthy pint of Guinness!

Congratulations to Hayley Sams who won the title of Miss Bedfordshire 2008. The photos are starting to come in now, with shoots by Chas Spradbery and Joshua Cornejo.

For all the follow up articles and pictures, keep an eye on the Miss Beds website!