Computer programmer Luca Mori found the remains of an ancient Roman villa when he browsed Google Earth maps showing satellite images of his local area.

His curiosity was sparked by unusual shading by his home in Sorbolo, Parma.

He contacted local archaeologists who investigated and confirmed it was once the location of a Roman villa.

"At first I thought it was a stain on the photograph," 47-year-old Mr Mori explained. "But when I zoomed in, I saw that there was something under the earth."

The satellite images threw up a dark oval shape more than 500m (1,640ft) long, as well as shaded rectangular shapes nearby.

Mr Mori decided to alert experts from the National Archaeological Museum in Parma about his find.

After excavating some ceramic pieces from the site – now farmland – they confirmed a Roman villa once stood there.

"At first they thought the site might be Bronze Age but a closer inspection turned up ceramic and stone pieces that showed it was a Roman villa built some time just before the birth of Christ," he was quoted as saying in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Google Earth is a service offered by the US-based internet search engine Google, allowing users to view most parts of the world using a combination of satellite imagery and maps.

]]> http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/internet-maps-reveal-roman-villa/feed/ 0 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/bbc-news-scitech-online-travel-taking-off/ http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/bbc-news-scitech-online-travel-taking-off/#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:09:21 +0000 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/bbc-news-scitech-online-travel-taking-off/ ]]>

Sci/Tech

Online travel taking off

MSN Expedia UK launches as a one-stop online travel shop

By Internet Correspondent Chris Nuttall
Microsoft is set to become the biggest player in the UK online travel industry with the launch on Thursday of its Expedia service.

Expedia promises the availability of hundreds of thousands of flights for booking online and 75,000 package holidays. Information is updated every 20 minutes so that £99 week in Majorca is still there when you try to buy it.

The service will give official published airfares next to ones at bucket-shop prices. It has the equivalent of 32 volumes of travel guides on its Website and 360-degree views of major tourist attractions. There are car hire and hotel booking services and the same level of security that has seen the US version avoid a single slip-up in its two-year history, according to the company.

High Street shops under threat

Expedia's launch could lead to a major shake-up in the UK online market.

But, in the long run, it could do more damage to the traditional High Street travel agent by boosting consumer confidence and awareness of the advantages of buying over the Internet.

At present, most people still prefer to buy their holidays face to face with their travel agent. But 25% are now booking by telephone, 10% use teletext, while less than 1% are using the Internet.

Those figures are expected to change dramatically over the next five years, with the growth of Net usage and interactive television entering the equation.

Travel is e-commerce leader

The travel business is the largest electronic commerce category with around 40 per cent of the market. "We reckon that by 2002 e-commerce in Europe will be worth about £16bn," says Simon Breakwell, head of MSN Expedia International, "We reckon that travel will be thirty to fifty per cent of that market." In the US, Expedia has been growing at 250 per cent a year, with $7m in sales every week and the millionth ticket recently sold.

The UK is the fourth-largest travel market in the world after the US, Germany and Japan and British companies are seeing a quick uptake of their own online services.

Flightbookers, based on London's Tottenham Court Road, is currently seeing business growing at 20 per cent a month on its Website. It was launched as far back as 1996 and Net sales are perhaps 10% of its overall business, with telesales taking up more than 80 per cent and the rest coming from customers visiting its handful of shops.

"Expedia has very deep pockets, which other online booking services don't have," says Firdaus Ruttonsha, managing director of Flightbookers.

"Expedia is a threat to the industry as a whole, but a greater threat to those travel agents that are not so far advanced with e-commerce. But it will give the online business greater credibility and expand the market for us."

EasyJet, the discount airline company, recently sold 30,000 seats over the Web during a five-week promotion with two national newspapers.

America's Travelocity launched a UK home page on Wednesday giving access to the Sabre computer reservation system used by 40,000 travel agents around the world. Content is being provided by Britain's Emap Online through sites such as Bargainholidays.com and A2Bairports.com.

Abta warns of extinction

The annual meeting of the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) was told last week that a revolution was coming in the way holidays were booked.

High Street travel agents who do not excel in what they do may not survive the competition, warned holiday company chief Warren Sandral.

And the managing director of the Airtours package holiday firm, Chris Mottershead, said: "We have to take every opportunity to sell our products. Those who bury their head in the sand will simply wither in the heat of the battle they don't have the wit to compete in."

Expedia 'not a category killer'

Graham Barnes, chairman of the IT consultant to the travel industry ABTECH told News Online by e-mail: "Microsoft have very deep pockets and are investing heavily in the hope that Expedia will be one of the 'category killers' that Americans love. It won't be. It may give a return on investment eventually but category killers and the Internet don't mix.

"The same person may buy a flight via Teletext, a city break from a kiosk, a summer holiday from a High Street agency and a business flight on the Internet at different times.

"The Internet will not cut out the middleman, but it will certainly put their added value under scrutiny."

Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo in what analysts regard as a response to the seemingly unstoppable rise of Google.

The emergence of Google has been staggering for observers and threatening for established players in every market it has entered.

Microsoft's response could level the playing field.

"This consolidates the marketplace down to Google versus Microsoft," says Colin Gillis, analyst at stockbroker Canaccord Adams.

Broad growth

Google's online mapping and internet-based phone calls to photo storage and news alerts – not to mention its unrelenting innovative streak – has enabled it to remain two steps ahead of its most bitter rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.

Consequently, Google is no longer a company taking pride in being simple and effective; rather it has ballooned and is now a multi-headed high tech beast eager and willing to not only get involved but increasingly take charge of every area online.

It is a strategy that could make Google vulnerable to attacks.

Some say the company is spreading itself thin by over-diversifying its product range.

Advert reliance

More crucially, its source of income remains largely one-dimensional – and therefore potentially vulnerable.

During a Google search, "sponsored links", or adverts, appear on the rights. They have been placed by hundreds of thousands of companies, which have picked particular words as triggers for their ads to appear.

Every click on an advert brings revenue to Google; advertisers, in turn, know what they pay for, so everyone is happy.

Active founders

The Google model was initially hammered out by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, now both in their early 30s.

The two met at Stanford University in the mid-1990s, where they were doing doctorates in computer sciences, and became friends while developing a new system of internet search engine from their college dormitory.

Initially called BackRub, they created a software system whereby the search engine would list results according to the popularity of the pages, after realising that more times than not the most popular result would also be the most useful.

After changing its name to Google they dropped out of college and the rest, as they say, would by now be history – except the story continues.

Google now finds itself at the top of the tree, just as dinosaurs like IBM once did.

But Mr Page and Mr Brin know full well what the threats are, and they are ready to take on their opponents.

]]> http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/googles-might-drove-the-shock-bid/feed/ 0 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/police-chief-decision-postponed/ http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/police-chief-decision-postponed/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:47:56 +0000 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/police-chief-decision-postponed/ ]]> A decision on appointing Lancashire's new chief constable has been postponed until the results of the government's planned police restructuring.

The authority decided on the delay after consulting the Home Office.

It re-advertised the job after failing to make an appointment following a series of interviews.

The previous chief constable Paul Stephenson left his job at the start of the year but there is still no full time replacement.

Candidate withdrew

The authority interviewed four candidates in April but decided none were suitable.

It has left acting chief constable Steve Finnigan still in charge – he is not allowed to apply for the post.

Three candidates applied when the job was readvertised but one has withdrawn.

The authority has agreed to suspended interviews until the results of a review are known on a planned reorganisation of police forces in England and Wales – which could include merging some forces.

I'm sitting in the Purcell Rooms in London in early December and I'm listening to some fantastic performance poetry and I'm marvelling at the state of the art of manipulating words in 2005.

There's such a variety of good work being produced and written about and, yes, performed, by old names and new voices, mature talents and up-and-comers that this is turning out to be a Vintage Year with maybe a hint of a Golden Age.

At the Purcell Rooms I'm watching (and judging, but I can't tell you the results yet) The Contenders, five excellent poets who are competing for the £10,000 Arts Foundation Prize: Matt Harvey, Kat Francois, Tim Turnbull, Zena Edwards and Shamshad Khan.

CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR VIEWS

Performance poetry

And after the evening ends I tell myself (and anybody else who'll listen, although I'm sitting in an empty railway carriage on a late train North) that this has been a night when performance poetry came of age, when performance poetry no longer needs to be seen as the rude mechanical making us laugh before the real stuff comes on.

Watch out for those people listed above in the next few years, and see if I'm right.

I'm lucky enough to present The Verb, Radio 3's Cabaret of the Word, every Saturday, and this year I've come across some fantastic poets, all of whom are great readers or performers of their work.

These include Geraldine Monk, whose new collection Escafield Hangings (West House Books) digs deeply into history and language; Frances Presley, whose collection Paravane is available from the excellent Salt Press, and who plays quietly with language until it gives in and dances.

And Gwyneth Lewis, who writes in Welsh and English, and who has just been made Wales's National Poet; her work in English has just been collected in Chaotic Angels by Bloodaxe Books, and I'd recommend it for its mixture of skill and humanity, a mixture you don't always get!

Speaking of writing in two languages, translated work and ideas of what translation is have featured highly in the poetry world this year, perhaps reflecting how the world appears to be fragmenting and shrinking at the same time.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the newly relaunched Modern Poetry in Translation, brilliantly edited by David and Helen Constantine; the new issue, just out, explores the idea of poets writing "between the languages", poets who never really feel at home in one language more than another.

The magazine is absolutely essential reading for these fragmented times, and it includes work by Kapka Kassabova and Choman Hardi, two splendid poets published by Bloodaxe, and work by the great Palestinian poet and prose writer, Mourid Barghouti. Subscribe now, please!

So, performance is alive and kicking, translation is alive and kicking, and there seem to be more and more individual collections coming out all the time. The scene is fragmented, delightfully so, and that has to be a good thing.

I've already mentioned non-mainstream publishers like West House Books and Salt, as well as Bloodaxe, the major poetry publisher in this country. Other publishers with a healthy regard for internationalism and work outside any image of an establishment include Shearsman Press, Etruscan Books, Arc Publications, Reality Street and the online magazine Jacket.

Silliman's Blog

If you want to know what's happening in poetry across the Atlantic as well as around the world, have a look at the weblog of the poet Ron Silliman: Silliman's Blog is a combative and informative daily delight, telling me about poets I've never heard of, as well as telling me things I didn't know about poets I thought I knew well.

Sadly 2005 also saw the death of Michael Donaghy, a great poet and one of the best performers of his own work I've ever heard; his writing worked both on the page and in the air and that's a pretty rare thing.

But maybe it won't carry on being a rare thing; if we're slipping into a Golden Age it's a Golden Age of boundary-smashing: of poets writing comfortably in more than one language; of poets and musicians working together, and poets and artists working together; of magazines and websites and weblogs springing up all over the place, of poet after poet jostling for attention and readers and listeners.

And long may it continue! Google up all the names I've written about in this piece, read or listen to their work and I promise you won't be disappointed. And have a listen to the Verb on a Saturday night: if there's a pulse to contemporary writing and language, we'll find it and put our finger on it!

If angry and committed poetry is what you want try, first of all, Quid 13, and the work of Keston Sutherland and Andrea Brady, both in that magazine and generally (see collections published by Barque and by Salt). There are others, but those spring to mind immediately. However, I don't think poetry is ever really likely to change somebody's mind on an issue – it is a way of thinking about issues and it may change the way you think on a broader (and deeper) level, but it is not about opinions. Not if it's any good. There's so much more than that going on.
Jonathan Clay, London

It has been a long time since I last read a contemporary poem that made me change my mind about any issue that was important to me. It has also been a long time since I last read or heard a contemporary poem which so much as tried.

Anger and commitment seem to have retreated into music, theatre and the novel. The recent poetry I have read seems overwhelmingly affable, rather than inflamed. Though this would apply much more to what I find in print than to what I discover online.
Chris O'Neill, Cardiff

Please complete the form below:

Name
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Your views

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
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Newsnight Review is broadcast on BBC Two at 2300 GMT on Friday's – immediately after Newsnight.

The final programme of the year will be shown on Friday, 16 December, 2005.

]]> http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/poetry-a-partial-view-2/feed/ 0 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/poetry-a-partial-view/ http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/poetry-a-partial-view/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:54:48 +0000 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/poetry-a-partial-view/ ]]>

I'm sitting in the Purcell Rooms in London in early December and I'm listening to some fantastic performance poetry and I'm marvelling at the state of the art of manipulating words in 2005.

There's such a variety of good work being produced and written about and, yes, performed, by old names and new voices, mature talents and up-and-comers that this is turning out to be a Vintage Year with maybe a hint of a Golden Age.

At the Purcell Rooms I'm watching (and judging, but I can't tell you the results yet) The Contenders, five excellent poets who are competing for the £10,000 Arts Foundation Prize: Matt Harvey, Kat Francois, Tim Turnbull, Zena Edwards and Shamshad Khan.

CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR VIEWS

Performance poetry

And after the evening ends I tell myself (and anybody else who'll listen, although I'm sitting in an empty railway carriage on a late train North) that this has been a night when performance poetry came of age, when performance poetry no longer needs to be seen as the rude mechanical making us laugh before the real stuff comes on.

Watch out for those people listed above in the next few years, and see if I'm right.

I'm lucky enough to present The Verb, Radio 3's Cabaret of the Word, every Saturday, and this year I've come across some fantastic poets, all of whom are great readers or performers of their work.

These include Geraldine Monk, whose new collection Escafield Hangings (West House Books) digs deeply into history and language; Frances Presley, whose collection Paravane is available from the excellent Salt Press, and who plays quietly with language until it gives in and dances.

And Gwyneth Lewis, who writes in Welsh and English, and who has just been made Wales's National Poet; her work in English has just been collected in Chaotic Angels by Bloodaxe Books, and I'd recommend it for its mixture of skill and humanity, a mixture you don't always get!

Speaking of writing in two languages, translated work and ideas of what translation is have featured highly in the poetry world this year, perhaps reflecting how the world appears to be fragmenting and shrinking at the same time.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the newly relaunched Modern Poetry in Translation, brilliantly edited by David and Helen Constantine; the new issue, just out, explores the idea of poets writing "between the languages", poets who never really feel at home in one language more than another.

The magazine is absolutely essential reading for these fragmented times, and it includes work by Kapka Kassabova and Choman Hardi, two splendid poets published by Bloodaxe, and work by the great Palestinian poet and prose writer, Mourid Barghouti. Subscribe now, please!

So, performance is alive and kicking, translation is alive and kicking, and there seem to be more and more individual collections coming out all the time. The scene is fragmented, delightfully so, and that has to be a good thing.

I've already mentioned non-mainstream publishers like West House Books and Salt, as well as Bloodaxe, the major poetry publisher in this country. Other publishers with a healthy regard for internationalism and work outside any image of an establishment include Shearsman Press, Etruscan Books, Arc Publications, Reality Street and the online magazine Jacket.

Silliman's Blog

If you want to know what's happening in poetry across the Atlantic as well as around the world, have a look at the weblog of the poet Ron Silliman: Silliman's Blog is a combative and informative daily delight, telling me about poets I've never heard of, as well as telling me things I didn't know about poets I thought I knew well.

Sadly 2005 also saw the death of Michael Donaghy, a great poet and one of the best performers of his own work I've ever heard; his writing worked both on the page and in the air and that's a pretty rare thing.

But maybe it won't carry on being a rare thing; if we're slipping into a Golden Age it's a Golden Age of boundary-smashing: of poets writing comfortably in more than one language; of poets and musicians working together, and poets and artists working together; of magazines and websites and weblogs springing up all over the place, of poet after poet jostling for attention and readers and listeners.

And long may it continue! Google up all the names I've written about in this piece, read or listen to their work and I promise you won't be disappointed. And have a listen to the Verb on a Saturday night: if there's a pulse to contemporary writing and language, we'll find it and put our finger on it!

If angry and committed poetry is what you want try, first of all, Quid 13, and the work of Keston Sutherland and Andrea Brady, both in that magazine and generally (see collections published by Barque and by Salt). There are others, but those spring to mind immediately. However, I don't think poetry is ever really likely to change somebody's mind on an issue – it is a way of thinking about issues and it may change the way you think on a broader (and deeper) level, but it is not about opinions. Not if it's any good. There's so much more than that going on.
Jonathan Clay, London

It has been a long time since I last read a contemporary poem that made me change my mind about any issue that was important to me. It has also been a long time since I last read or heard a contemporary poem which so much as tried.

Anger and commitment seem to have retreated into music, theatre and the novel. The recent poetry I have read seems overwhelmingly affable, rather than inflamed. Though this would apply much more to what I find in print than to what I discover online.
Chris O'Neill, Cardiff

Please complete the form below:

Name
Your e-mail address
Town & Country
Your views

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
Terms & Conditions

Newsnight Review is broadcast on BBC Two at 2300 GMT on Friday's – immediately after Newsnight.

The final programme of the year will be shown on Friday, 16 December, 2005.

]]> http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/poetry-a-partial-view/feed/ 0 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/google-quizzed-over-youtube-plans/ http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/google-quizzed-over-youtube-plans/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:43:53 +0000 Hierogeo http://hplaptopsuk2000.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/google-quizzed-over-youtube-plans/ ]]> Google has vowed to take a tough line on copyright when it completes its $1.65bn (£875m) takeover of YouTube.

The video-sharing website's rapid growth has been partly down to the thousands of clips from old TV shows uploaded illegally by its users.

But Google Europe vice-president Nikesh Arora told MPs his company would not tolerate copyright violations.

YouTube is thought to have escaped prosecution so far because it is a new business with little cash, MPs heard.

Its policy is to take down copyrighted material when it is alerted by the owners, but it has been criticised for not being vigilant enough.

It has also developed technology that will allow it to block copyrighted videos.

'Pot of money'

Nevertheless, some pundits are predicting Google, which is one of the world's highest valued companies, will be hit by a string of legal challenges as soon as the YouTube takeover goes through.

Andrew Mclaughlin, Google's head of global public policy, was asked about the YouTube takeover by MPs during a session before the Commons culture committee.

He pointed out that if material infringed copyright on the existing Google Video service, "we take it down".

But he added: "I just can't say anything about YouTube since it's not our company."

The committee chairman John Whittingdale asked Mr Arora if Google had "put aside a very large pot of money to settle copyright infringement" when it took over YouTube.

Mr Arora replied: "There is not a lot we can say about what we will do with YouTube because it is still in the process of due diligence and we haven't closed the acquisition."

But he added: "We intend to uphold copyright. We believe it is very important as part the creative process.

"It's evident from our policy as part of Google Video, Google News or Google Books, and any acquisition in the future is not going to change Google's view on copyright."

Content deals

YouTube has signed content deals with entertainment giants CBS, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, NBC and Warner Music Group.

The companies will allow YouTube to distribute approved copyrighted material in exchange for a share of advertising revenue.

Copyright owners can then judge whether to allow the video to remain on the site, and take a share of the advertising or block it.

YouTube already limits clips to 10 minutes to keep users from uploading whole television episodes and films – but some users get round this by uploading them in instalments, the committee heard.

I suppose it could be a bad moment, the first time you see your mother with a zimmer frame.

But when my mum took delivery of hers, she took to it immediately, scampering off like a child with a new toy.

And it was a triumph in another way as well – evidence of one of the government's better ideas on helping the elderly, of which more later.

But for every success, there are also a series of problems, as I have been finding out since my 77-year-old mother fractured her pelvis in a fall at home.

Like many of her generation she is independent, courageous, even, frankly, a little bloody-minded in tackling pain.

Perhaps the biggest problem is to get her to ask for help. My mother even went to a wedding before I could persuade her to go to hospital to check on this extremely painful injury.

Despite the fact that she is highly intelligent and alert, it has taken a lot of work to chase down what she really needs.

In fact, sometimes I have joked that it has taken all my skills as a war correspondent to battle through the bureaucracy.

'No trouble'

In my experience, the services are often available. But the hard-pressed professionals are not always persistent enough in offering them to members of a wartime generation whose catch phrase might be "I don't want to be any trouble…"

There are certainly plenty of good people willing to provide great care.

Take the intermediate care team – a unit of the NHS that has been set up to help older people stay out of hospital, or expensive full-time care.

As soon as we contacted them they swung into action, in an outstanding way.

They provided the zimmer frame, not to mention personal care, physiotherapy and regular visits from a nurse.

An excellent occupational therapist has helped to coordinate the care, and advised on making my mother's home easier to navigate.

In fact all the staff are exceptionally good. It's a system that makes human and economic sense.

Then there's her local doctors' surgery, who have also risen to the task.

Home visits without complaint. Phone calls returned promptly. A really pro-active approach to my mother's care.

'Chaotic' management

But many other parts of the system, simply do not work together.

For example, the hospital where she was originally treated after her fall.

I should have suspected the worst when it took me nearly half an hour to find a wheelchair for my mother.

Many of the healthcare staff there are magnificent. But the management seems utterly chaotic.

Unfortunately I could not be there to supervise my mother's discharge from hospital. And because she was feeling ok that morning she declined an offer of physio ("I don't want to be any trouble…")

But they seem to have devised no follow-up plan whatsoever for this injury, so common amongst older people.

The National Osteoporosis Society says that 30% of people aged over 65 who are living at home fall every year.

When I called to chase up the offer of physio, I was told that once she had refused, that was it.

And the staff seemed totally ignorant of the scheme of intermediate care on offer, referring me, mistakenly, to Social Services.

As for contacting her medical team at the hospital once she had left – you would have better luck ringing the Pope at the Vatican.

Retirement homes

Then there are longer term issues.

My mother has a beautiful house near one of the best schools in London.

There is nothing she would like better than to sell it to a young family, and move to a suitable flat. But it is just is not that easy.

No-one is building retirement homes suitable for her in London. Trust me, I have looked, and looked.

I have seen developments that fit the bill, perfectly. Just not in London. For example, a group called English Courtyard have some beautiful developments.

They provide a level of care able to keep most older people safe and independent.

But my mother does not want to move to Kent or Cambridgeshire. Her friends, her family and her medical support are all in London.

In this, as in so many other issues concerning the elderly, it's often not a lack of money, it's a lack of imagination and coordination.

And most strikingly of all it's a desperate lack of information that is the problem.

Just try trawling through the government's useless websites, or make a google search for "intermediate care" and you will see what I mean.

No-one is sending out a clear message.

Even the most astute elderly person would have trouble working out what is available and what they need, let alone someone befuddled and in need of urgent attention.

Until those problems are resolved, our older citizens will have to rely on persistent friends and relatives, willing to fight for them, however many times they are told "I don't want to be any trouble…."

Award winner

Newsnight won an award this week. Not a BAFTA or RTS, though those would be nice. It was the Media Tenor Global TV Award 2005.

I'd never heard of it either. They're an international institute who monitor the world's media and collect data on story selection, diversity, balance, etc.

Their gratifying conclusion: "Newsnight outshines domestic and international competitors".

Click here to download the data in full

Did we lose our bottle?

Despite this significant triumph the theme of the week has been other people telling us how to do our job.

There was Andrew Gilligan in The Spectator complaining that we didn't run a recent investigation into the announcement of a deal involving a company owned by the Hindujas, apparently to sell defence vehicles to Sudan.

Taking lectures from Andrew Gilligan on what should or shouldn't run is an interesting proposition, and as with some of his earlier work I'd say he got this story about 90% right.

In this or any other investigation the bottom line is: Is it true and can you prove it? The story we'd have ended up with would, I think, have been so complicated and qualified as to be impossible to tell meaningfully.

Distorted vision

Another organisation that tries to influence our running orders is Medialens.

They're a website whose rather grand aim is to "correct the distorted vision of the corporate media".

They prolifically let us know what they think of our coverage, mainly on Iraq, George Bush and the Middle East, from a Chomskyist perspective.

In fact I rather like them. David Cromwell and David Edwards, who run the site, are unfailingly polite, their points are well-argued and sometimes they're plain right.

For example, Newsnight hasn't done enough on the US war on insurgency in Western Iraq. The reason is we don't have a presence there because it's too dangerous and pictures and firm evidence are hard to come by.

But that shouldn't be an excuse, and this week we managed to get an interview with a US Marine colonel on the front line to raise some of the points Medialens and others are concerned about.

Contact us – and them

One of Medialens' less ingratiating habits is to suggest to their readers that they contact me at peter.barron@bbc.co.uk to complain about things we've done, so after every controversial episode I get hundreds of e-mails from sometimes less-than-polite hommes engages – they're almost always men – most of whom don't appear to have watched the programme.

So, in order that they don't have an unfair inbox-jamming monopoly, you can get me at the above address or via the website, and if you felt inclined to write to Medialens, they're at editor@medialens.org.

Newsnight's House Party

Like most editors, I imagine, I have a Google alert so that every time the word Newsnight appears on the internet the article pops up on my screen.

A couple of interesting ones this week: 5 News have been inviting celebrities – including Alastair Campbell, Miss Dynamite and Kelly Holmes – to edit their programme. Their editor, Mark Calvert, predicts that Newsnight might soon be at it too.

The other story that caught my eye was that Noel Edmonds, celebrating his return to TV, was asked where it all might lead. "Let me have a shot at Newsnight," was his instant reply. You can see where we're heading here…

The upshot of all of this is that, honestly, we do want to hear from you if you think you could do a better job of Newsnight than we do.

I'm not saying we're going to let you speak directly into Noel's ear on next week's show, but what our viewers think should influence what we do on the programme.

We'll certainly publish your contributions – whether they're e-mails, photos or films – and if we get enough good material we could even produce an alternative Newsnight running order here on the website.

The Media Tenor Global TV Award 2006 is there for the taking.

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Not that this was the inspiration for Newsnight's Geek Week, but we thought we'd mention it anyway as Newsnight's editor is the proud owner of one.

This week, Stephen Smith is let loose in Silicon Valley and Paul Mason veers towards virtual reality to find out what's happening in the technical world.

Join in our Geek Week celebrations by sending Newsnight your reflections, predictions and complaints about all things technical.

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  YOUR COMMENTS

  The e-mails published reflect the balance of opinion received.

  I started out on a ZX Spectrum too. I'm now studying Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at university. To elaborate on what Abhir Bhalerao from Coventry said: We are a long way off from complex voice recognition and task comprehension. Think 50 years if we are lucky, and it will take a genius to get us there at that! It doesn't matter how fast our computers get, they are still just calculators. The thing that matters is we lack a working concept to express intelligence and/or knowledge in a form a computer could use. We don't fully understand how humans comprehend abstract concepts – why would anyone think we could make an artificial version of this in 10 years? Giving commands using voice recognition you can have now – but understanding natural language and doing something useful with it is a long way off. Cyber pets are a long way from fetching your newspaper from the corner shop at the passing mention you want one.
  Matt Oates, Cheltenham

  It's so nice to see the Sinclair ZX81, but you may be too early? I think the ZX81 was released on March 11, 1981. "Sinclairly" yours.
  Peter Liebert-Adelt, Braunschweig in Germany

  If all you saw were the sex clubs, casinos and shooting galleries and that's all you reported on, you missed a lot; and missed a lot of reporting on the very real community(ies) within Second Life.
  Jitar, FurNation, Second Life

  Excellent! I enjoyed the "Geek Week" experience. Now I have to get the gadgets to be smaller or larger!
  Janet, Harpenden

  What a lot of fuss about computers. Advances in computing technology pale into insignificance when compared to Genetic Engineering and Bio Technology advances in the last 40 years. Most computer scientists would agree that AI has not delivered so all that claptrap about computing intelligence taking over seems as distant as a 50s sci-fi film. I don't want to be in an office full of people chattering to their computers, even if it does become possible – how daft is that?
  Roseanna, Sutton

  Wow, the memories of that ZX81 when it came out of the box for the first time and plugged into the family television. It's true that processor-specific, low-level coding taught kids how to eek every last droplet of CPU from these machines. However, the largess that modern computing languages and practices demand has enabled a new generation of programmers to create computer codes as if building Lego models. In addition to the now familiar interface with the world of information that is the search engine, we have a newly emergent computing interface, the 3D OpenGL view, of the real world (Google Earth), and of alternative worlds (Second Life), appealing to a new generation and demanding new modes of invention.
  Richard Hugtenburg, Birmingham

  Geek Week has made my year already. Virtual reality has been in my mouth and mind since I joined High School. The computer and its associated games are my best companion – they entertain, and best of all give you the comfort of the modern world. With computers and the World Wide Web, the sky is the limit.
  Dick Komakech, Woking

  I got a Sinclair "speccy" 48k back in '83 and have been hooked virtually ever since. The retro scene has kept this and other 8-bit machines well and truly alive. With emulators for virtually every platform, everyone can now replay the classics such as Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner.
  Daren, Manchester

  Like most of the people who spend more time playing online games than watching TV, I was playing an online game when Newsnight's report was shown last night. Fortunately, my wife alerted me, so I didn't miss it. Did you know that, like the World Wide Web, virtual worlds are a UK invention?
  Professor Richard A Bartle, Colchester

  I was really fascinated by the Geek Week report about online gaming. It was good to see a well informed report that could be appreciated by both geeks and non geeks. I think I stand somewhere between the two. I don't play computer games but I do access most of my news online – apart from TV news, which I usually watch, and browse other websites relevant to what I'm watching. Oh dear, perhaps I am a geek.
  Barrie, York

  It was very nice to meet Paul Mason in Second Life and hear his first-hand impressions. We watched his rapidly-increasing understanding and enjoyment of our virtual world during several hours in which he stayed to discuss the programme with us. Though most of us found his item a fair representation of a new arrival's view we would, I think, not be surprised to see at least one follow-up detailing more real life experiences and positive activities in-world.
  Garnet Psaltery, Telford and Second Life

  As a fairly long term resident of Second Life (coming up for 18 months in just over a week and hardly missed a day in that time) I experienced an odd dichotomy last night – watching Newsnight about SL whilst being there and chatting to my friends! I enjoyed the piece very much, although I'd like to say it's not necessarily reflective of what keeps those of us that stay here, even if it is probably indicative of what many people first see. I've had sex in real life and in Second Life but I've never gambled in Second Life (although I built and sold a blackjack table for a client) – I've rarely gambled in real life, either. What I do manage in Second Life is much wider than that. Lots of talking to friends, sure, lots of shopping, too, which got a passing mention. But I also teach – some Second Life relevant stuff, some more generally applicable stuff such as creative writing – and I'm learning Portuguese. Just like this life out here, Second Life is what you make of it!
  Eloise Pasteur, York

  Andrew Street from Cardiff said lets make computers look nice. Well, lots of computers do look nice – Apple iMacs, which are designed to be the hub of a digital life, or Sony machines, have a sleekness about them. The only thing with these computers is cost. A computer will look nice but it may cost a bit more than a boring beige box that sits in the corner.
  Michael Jolly, Liverpool

  ZX-81 was my first computer – happy birthday. Thanks, Newsnight, for remembering. I loved my ZX-81, it was about £80, very affordable, you could plug it into your TV – that and a chemistry set were the best presents to get. Now I'm a Biochemist and Ultra-Mac/Unix Geek. Yes, there where bigger and better computers but this was affordable – that was the key. After that I has a C64, 128, Amiga then Apple Mac and PowerBooks – I'm so glad I've wasted zero time in my life in Windows… More Geek stuff please Newsnight – we're grown up now. Oh, and the coolest thing in the computer world today is the $100 laptop project from MIT – what a brilliant idea. Make it happen everyone – imagine all those third world kids at the start of their own 1/0 adventure.
  Asam Bashir, Cambridge

  After watching your video about Second Life, I have to say I AM HOOKED, and have been for some time now! I've been involved in 3D VR chat programmes for around seven years now as a user and now couldn't live without them! When SL hit the PCs I popped in just to take a look round and WOW, I was instantly hooked. You can be whatever and whoever you want to be – I've met and talked to some wonderful people. In March 2004, I flew to New York and married the man of my dreams after we met in Active Worlds.com and I've never been happier. By the way, I'm 53. Keep up the good work Newsnight!
  Viv Garbacki, Burnley

  ZX81 is OK but much more limited than the BBC Micro, specified by the BBC and produced by Acorn specifically to go with a BBC Television education series on computer literacy. The BBC wrote a special computer language (called BBC BASIC) which was a brilliant educational tool. BASIC is an interpreted language which is easy to programme but can be slow. The BBC version included functions and procedures and access to an assembler which not only ran faster but was educationally of much more value to future programmers. Pity to forget it altogether.
  Duncan Thomas, Marlow

  It's not just coffee that they serve up at Buck's Diner, I'm sure as there certainly was a lot of BS going round. Talking to computers so that they might understand what you are saying is just round the corner? Oh, (to use a horrible American expression), give me a break! I heard that 10 years ago. Tell us something new, Newsnight!
  Abhir Bhalerao, Coventry

  The great thing about the internet is that it is still anybody's game. Barriers to entry are low, and you are only as good as your next idea. Google and Microsoft will battle, but there is plenty of room in between. For example, I believe more press should be given to women's achievements so I started newsonwomen.com. I didn't need venture capital, I didn't need a business plan, I just wanted to make a difference, so I did it. That's the power of the internet.
  Alice Krause, New York

  My idea of the future of computing will be more of a lifestyle change. At the moment the computer sits in the corner of a room for most people. More thought will have to be made as to the aesthetic value. LETS MAKE COMPUTERS LOOK NICE!
  Andrew Street, Cardiff

  Why are all the fancy gadgets getting smaller? Why not keep everything the same size and make them better, faster and easier to use?
  Jack Marks, Cork city

  My first computer was a 48K Sinclair Spectrum in 1982 and it was from this that I got bitten by the programming bug, mainly during the 1984 Miners' Strike when we were unable to afford to buy software, so I started writing my own. At age 13 I was selling my own Spectrum games. Now 24 years after getting that computer, I'm still using the skills I learnt while programming the Spectrum. Of course computers have advanced a lot, in both power and storage capacity, but the basic principles still apply. Programming the Spectrum was a challenge due to its limited memory and propensity for overheating; but I think that more recent programmers, who have learnt their trade on modern PCs only, don't try as hard to make their programs efficient. With only 41.5K of usable RAM on the Spectrum, even a single pixel could make a difference. These early home computers spawned a generation of people who understand how a computer works, and how to overcome technical challenges to get it to do what you want. I'm not sure if that will ever happen again.
  Matt Rudge

  Excellent! I most enjoyed tonight's first segment of "Geek Week". Now all I have to do is try and squeeze my way into the Google Labs…
  Rob McDougall, London

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