“5. Weemees. If you put a weemee next to your name, you are scum.” Ten reasons to hate Friends Reunited, over at ak13.

Google Labs are at it again. Check this out for DHTML wizardry: Google Maps. Only for the US for now. It finds things on maps; it lets you scroll around maps, it’s very fast. But then: it lets you find types of business in locations, and pinpoints them with drop-shadowed pins; click on the pins for info. To top it off: it’ll produce driving directons, even marking routes onto maps for you. No Flash. All DHTML. Make this for the UK! Now!

Gawker launches new things with ersatz titles formed by ramming one noun into another: the bandwagon-hopping Lifehacker and the frankly dull Gridskipper. The methodology becomes more obvious every time: find a bandwagon to jump on, grab a sponsor, make a blog, profit! Lifehacker could turn out interesting, but the Gawker style (which is more appropriate for uploading press releases, as Gizmodo shows) really doesn’t suit it. In short: “meh”.

Bother. Bungie have changed the format of their Halo2 RSS feeds, which means those of us working on web applications that parse these feeds… have a bit more work to do on them. Now I have to bugfix again. Grr!

Several things in the recently posted elsewhere camp: three articles over at the New Statesman New Media Awards 2005 Weblog; one on a pioneering broadband scheme in Shoreditch, one on Southampton University’s ePrints scheme, and one on the Venezuelan government’s move to Open Source.

Wow. Apple iHome illicit backroom shots. From the front: slot loading drive. On the back: usual iBook style ports. Headless iBook… now all we need is a price. $500, with proper OSX, and the world is their oyster.

The trailer for Sin City has been released (quicktime, right-click to save). It’s breathtaking, visually; whilst the books are slight on plot, a multi-narrative film could be perfect for them. Bated breath, I tell thee.

Magpie – an XML-based RSS parser for PHP. Really, really handy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Pong Fan Fiction. Enjoy.

Another. Bloody. iPod. This time with pictures.