My world consists of pain. My legs hurt. My wrists hurt. My neck hurts. My arse hurts. All I can see are gears on the wheel in front of me and the tarmac blurring past. I know the road I’m on, but don’t know for sure whereabouts we are on it. The wheel in front stretches away, the gap increases from 5cm to 15, then 20 then 50. Thigh and calf muscle strain as I try harder and invisible elastic brings us back together, so close tyres almost kiss; if Kaye has to stop, there’ll be the mother of all pile ups.

For quite some time I've been talking about the need for the UK telecoms industry to wean itself off the high copper diet it uses to deliver services to the home - laws of physics dicate that real broadband can't be delivered over this material and economics dictate the national GDP will suffer in the new world if we don't have hundreds of megbytes per second to the home. The only way of doing this is to replace the copper with fibre optics to the home (FTTH) which would allow essentially unlimited bandwidth in the final mile.

These days BT claims it can't afford it, however their former CTO Peter Cochrane produced the business case which justified it 21 years ago, and indeed the UK is already falling behind other countries in this area. It should be noted that on average each of us lives within just 1Km of a fibre optic cable.

We do all we can to help our show guests, and hope to do more for them with the arrival of pod3.tv version 2. In the meantime here's a bloglette by way of announcing Eliza Wren Payne has launched her new mini-album called Utah. We were lucky to get a sneak preview earlier in the year and we really like what she's done.

You can buy your very own copy, or copies for other people this holiday season, from here.

If you'd like to see Eliza perform for real go here and for a complete Eliza-fest visit her website here.

Cheers

N

pod3.tv, the UK’s fastest growing video-podcast webTV company, has signed up the award winning and critically acclaimed gardening e-commerce and mail order business Wiggly Wigglers to their advertising and show sponsors list.

“We’re thrilled to be supporting Wiggly Wigglers” says Neil Fairbrother, founder of pod3.tv “Heather is an inspirational business leader and we are delighted to be associated with her business, especially as she produces the world’s best audio gardening podcast!”

In this video podcast, sponsored by Wiggly Wigglers, Mr Biffo (BAFTA nominated screenwriter Paul Rose), otherwise known as LooyLisa21f, discusses his alternative digital life in internet-based chatrooms. Brought to book by The Friday Project, this is Paul Rose's first book and takes us through a journey of the bizarre, funny, sad and sometimes desperate world of the lonely hearts.

In this video podcast, sponsored by Wiggly Wigglers, Peg Samuel and Lexi Tabback give us the insider secrets of How to be a Social Diva. They are first time authors and their book, How to be a Social Diva, is the ultimate guide to the ultimate social life.

It was inevitable that I’d get into motorbikes. I had six bicycles and was regularly clocking up 200, 300 or even 400 miles a week, racing, training and touring. Fine whilst I was working in a bicycle shop, but when I took a position as a computer engineer, complete with company car and oscilloscope, it became harder and harder to maintain the miles as the unpredictable nature of the hi-tech system failures blew the training schedule to pieces.

Even earlier than this I was attracted to the motorbike, as opposed to the pedal bike. I’d read Zen and the Art of Maintenance for the first time when I was about 16 and found I could very easily relate to the author’s descriptions of what motorcycling was like; and it appealed.

But I’d never been on a motorbike before.

In this motorbike video podcast, Team Spidey goes racing at Pembray. We’re in the pits and trackside too, covering all the action. We interview Andy Peck as he battles tough competition to win and we talk to Chris Richardson who is one step ahead on his Ducatti 999. We get a good look at the new Ducatti 1098 in pristine condition; and also get a good look at it after rider Graham Goodyear took a tumble...

We just received a note from Eliza Wren Payne that she has some concert dates coming up, on both sides of the Atlantic:

1)for those of you in LONDON: i will be playing on WED, SEPT. 12TH at Ginglik (near Shepherds Bush station, under the green) at 8:30. £5.

THIS GIG IS THE LAUNCH OF MY NEW E.P. called "UTAH". !!!!!!! It is finally here!!!! yay!!!!

2) for those of you who live in NYC or KNOW ANYONE WHO LIVES IN NYC:
I will be playing on

SEPT. 22 at Club Midway (25 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009, NYC,Cost:$10)

and

SEPT. 29 at Pianos (158 Ludlow Street at Stanton, NYc,10002.Cost:$8)

(come on, folks, saturday night both times in nyc!)

Hope you can make it as Eliza is well worth watching.

Cheers

Neil

Apple have finally launched an extension to their TV download service in iTunes to the UK. Shows from ABC Studios, Disney, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy are now available for £1.89 per episode and include South Park, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty as well as UK series such as MTV’s Barrio 19, Nickelodeon’s Genie in the House and Paramount Comedy’s Comedy Blue.

Just like pod3.tv’s shows, Apple’s TV shows can be downloaded into iTunes on Mac or PC and also played on iPods and AppleTV systems (and iPhones when they are available, one assumes). This means that in the UK we now have on-line downloadable video on demand content from the BBC (Windows only), Channel 4 (Windows only), ITV (Windows only), Channel5 (Windows only) and now Apple (Windows and Mac).