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Today on Radio New Zealand National I talk about the energy consumption of computers and how you can do your bit to keep that down.

Read below the “more” for my speaker notes, or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National I’m going to talk about several different things. One of them is how technology changes our language. Read on for my speaker notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

There’s a wild and beautiful range of mountains in Wales called the Brecon Beacons. Here’s Pen-y-Fan, its highest peak.

It’s an amazing place to go tramping, but you have to be careful because the weather is very changeable. Don’t be put off by Welsh mountains’ apparent small size – the weather on top can approach arctic conditions.

The Beacons are home to a tough breed of farmers. As in most of the Welsh hills, sheep are run all across the bleak hillsides. You can’t blame the farmers for having a little fun, and when some marketing genius came up with this YouTube video, we all chortled.

It was three weeks or so ago that we were discussing this on Twitter, and mainly making bad puns. But now, television has caught up with it. Last night TV3 News carried the video, not even in the ‘Arnold the Singing Turkey’ slot after the weather, but in the second segment before some rather more serious and significant stories.

TV3 edited the video to suit their format – I guess that’s to be expected. They added a voice over explaining what was going on, and a banner to tell you the location. Here’s a screen shot:

This place is called the Brecon Beacons, remember. Check the name at the bottom of the screen. Now, that’s hilarious.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I’ll talk mainly about a free stuff you can use and downoad legally from the Internet. My point is that a huge amount of useful and world-class stuff is just there for the using. No cash required. Who said the best things in life weren’t free?

I put out a call for suggestions for this program by email and on my blog a few days ago. If you were one of the helpful people who replied – thanks. This program’s yours as much as mine. Don’t you love the Internet!

Listen live at 11:05 or download the audio as Ogg or MP3.

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