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I have most of my music available in digital format and have occasionally pondered the purchase of a wireless streaming device so I could listen to music anywhere in the house.

Another possibility would be to upload all the music to my own server and stream music from any computer using freely available software (e.g. Icecast).

Of course, both those options cost money and more importantly, time so, as always, I chose to so absolutely nothing apart from duplicating my iTunes library on my two main (home/work) computers.

Well that's not entirely true - over the years I have had an on-off friendship with last.fm. Last.fm is a social network which allows you to log music you are listening to, mark favourite tracks, create and share playlists with friends so you can use it as a discovery engine. This didn't entirely work for me - I simply marvelled at people's shocking taste in music and wondered how on earth 'Plastic Bertrand' even appears on the Habari group.

Recently, I picked up on a new music service called Spotify and scoured the Web to secure an invite. I was immediately impressed with Spotify - you have to download a desktop client but after that, you are free to play music - streamed from their servers. In fact, I think there may be an element of peer to peer and BitTorrent going on behind the scenes as Spotity does use disk space on the local PC as a cache.

Anyway, streaming music was hugely impressive - playback was completely seamless - no stutters, no pauses, no jumps. It was just like playing music locally in Media Player or iTunes. Spotify doesn't have all the world's music collection available on their servers but fortunately I am stuck in an 80's musical timewarp and the vast majority of my narrow tastes are catered for on Spotify.

I also really like Spotify's interface - simple, intuitive and reassuringly grey. Guess what - you can choose your favourite artist and then select an album (unlike last.fm that insists on playing your library in an arbitrary order which is incredibly annoying when you want to listen to a specific album or track).

So how much is Spotify charging for this wonderful service ? Well, it's free although there are occasional audio adverts sprinkled in between songs although in my view, the adverts are not invasive (every 5 or 6 songs) and no worse than commercial radio - a lot better in fact. There are also visual ads in the Spotify aplication, but again, I don't find these too bothersome. If you do, there are subscription options for an ad-free service although at £10 per month, I think this option is way overpriced.

What's the catch ? Is this illegal ? Isn't this Limewire dressed up with a different interface ? Well - no because Spotify pays the artists and labels for access to the music so the content on Spotify is legal. In fact, Spotify does contain some content from dubious sources which is occasionally being trimmed and removed from the servers as it is identified.

The good news doesn't end there. The labels, bands and A&R men behind Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Metallica and The Beatles refused to share their music so there is simply no way you can ever encounter any of that dross. Ever.

The only two main omissions that I care about are The Smiths (hears loud cheering in the distance) and that Beatles tribute band fronted by two brothers from Manchester - Oasis (hears more loud cheering).

Using Spotify I can access most of my music library from any PC (desktop or work laptop) and there's an option to automatically update last.fm with tracks played.

Does this signal the death of the music industry and mark my last ever CD purchase ? Well - no, ironically Spotify has sparked my interest and unveiled more hidden musical nuggets ('Entertainment' by 'Gang of Four' to name just one) I had completely forgotten about. Consequently, I will probably go out and buy now more CD's as I also listen to music on my iTouch and in the car.

Anyway, Spotify is only available in selected countries at the moment and subscription is by invite only (Google Blog Search is your friend) but today Spotify opened up to users in the UK without the need for an invite.

Last Friday, I found myself standing in a short queue at Newcastle airport. I could immediately discern that the global economic recession is starting to take hold up in the bleak, industrial North. Normally, at this time, Newcastle airport is packed with hordes of Geordie holidaymakers bound for the Mediterranean and beer swilling lads in Newcastle football shirts going on a, err, cultural visit to Prague.

However, to my surprise, last Friday, the airport was eerily quiet. No queue for the self-service kiosk. No queue to check the bag, No queue to enter the security area. No snaking queues with temporary barriers to navigate. No smiling, happy, expectant people discussing their fourth overseas holiday of the year.

In fact, just a scattering of tired, emotional businessmen, pilots and aircrew passing their bags, belts and shoes through the security scanner.

As usual, I go to grab my laptop off the conveyor belt and hope my trousers don't fall down. The vigilant lady says 'Brian - get that bag'. I sigh as Brian says 'Excuse me, Sir - is this your bag ?' I own up and he starts to pull out the various adapters, wires, power supplies and cables. He looks towards the vigilant lady. 'Is it this lot ?' 'No - it's round, circular'.

Brian delves further into the tardis that is my Targus laptop bag. To my horror, he drags out an empty bag of 'Liquorice Twists' and a copy of 'Oracle Magazine' that I nicked from work. A pretty lady dressed in a nice trouser suit looks dismissively at me while she puts her shoes back on. I feel myself start to redden. It gets worse as I realise my trousers have fallen down.

And, finally, Brian finds it. He triumphantly pulls out a roll of Sellotape. I have carted this all around Europe and the UK in the forlorn hope that I would somehow summon up the enthusiasm to do my expenses in a lonely hotel room. But, of course, I never did.

Vigilant lady scowls: 'Yeah - that's it, Brian.' Brian then quickly places the almost full roll of high quality Sellotape into an unseen drawer. 'Sorry, Sir but I am going to have to confiscate that item.'

'Are you serious ? I have lugged that Sellotape all around Europe for two years and never been challenged once. In any case, how will I do my expenses now. You must know that staples are explicitly not allowed by Section 3.1.2a of the expenses policy. And before you say it, nor is Blu-Tac.'

'Sorry, Sir but I must confiscate this item in the interests of security.'

'Come on - at least tell me why.'

Vigilant lady momentarily takes her eagle eyes off the camera and spits out: 'Because, Sir, that item could be used as a restraining device on the aircraft. That is why.'

So, next time, you're on a plane and your neighbour reaches for the overhead locker and pulls out a roll of Sellotape - be frightened, be afraid, be very afraid because he isn't going to simply update his holiday scrapbook.

That manic psychopath is going to bind and gag you; he is going to wrap you up tight like an Egyptian Mummy; he is going to wrap you up like a Christmas present from your mother-in-law (with no air-holes).

Then, he is going to wield you in front of him, advancing forward through the plane from your aisle seat in 23C, brandishing a roll of Sellotape. He will then ignore the screams of passengers and break into the cabin, demanding the immediate release of political prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and that the plane diverts to Tehran immediately with a press conference on arrival or you are going to get it !

With the heavy duty duct tape.

Or as New Order once sang 'In a lonely place'.

Much has been made of Rafa Benitezs so-called rant against Alex Ferguson. Of course, Benitez is correct for the most part but the most amusing part was when he pulled out a sheet of A4 with the charge sheet.

Benitez is pretty new to this game and he would have been better advised to speak out after Liverpool had won 4-0 extending their lead and avoiding the use of the phrase 'mind games' - particularly when he's not getting involved in them. Supposedly.

Instead, look at Liverpool's performance and result at the weekend (stuttering 0-0 draw at Stoke) and compare and contrast with United's performance (convincing 3-0 win over Chelsea). Now who looks an idiot ?

Of course, Alex Ferguson's just as bad - he is similarly obsessive and keeps his own little black books. When asked for his reaction to Benitez's press conference, he also rose to the bait, claiming Benitez was 'disturbed' and you had to ignore the 'venom'.

How much better would a simple reply of 'You know what - I poured out another glass of red wine, sat back and just smiled' ?

Anyway, to yesterday's game and Jamie Carragher. He looked decidedly uncomfortable being asked about United's best performance of the season and he looked distinctly uneasy when asked about Benitez's quotes but what do you expect ?

Would Gary Neville have taken money to go to Anfield to be a pundit on a crucial Liverpool game and run the risk of having to awkwardly praise his hated rivals ? I sincerely doubt it.

Anyway, the most telling remark was when Liverpool's vice-captain was asked: 'So you think Liverpool will be involved in the final weeks to decide the Championship ?'

A easy, weak, typically banal question to close the show. Jamie Carragher just needed to say 'Yeah - we are top. We are playing well. We have the points on the board. Games in hand don't always mean points. We have already beaten United and Chelsea and they all have to catch us.'

But he didn't. He said:

'Yes. Hopefully.'

Will this prove to be Carragher''s Gallas moment ?

Recently I collected Norma-Jean from one of her hobbies. As we departed, I stopped to bid farewell to a couple of boys who were preparing to cycle home: See you next time, lads.

'Dad - why did you have to say goodbye to those boys ?'

'Well I see them here twice a week so I was just being friendly...'

'God - that was so embarrassing. I actually thought you were going to say 'Cheerio' as usual'.

There followed a brief discussion on the list of all possible farewell greetings and the acceptability of each. Then we reached the car. She put her iPod on, I listened to the radio and the matter was closed.

Until the following week. We left the sports centre where the same two lads were unlocking their bikes. I paused. My daughter stopped and looked at me in stupefied horror as I waited for the lads' full attention.

'Laterz'

This week, I have been working in Bergen, near Norway. Normally, I view my trips to major European cities simply as a means to end and after a while they all tend to blur into one unified major European city. Same hotel room, same office, different people, same problems, same computers, same restaurants with the same cashless transaction mechanism.

Bergen, however, is different. The city is just beautiful. I love it. Mountains, water, snow, history. Just stunning. If I didn't have ties, I think I would seriously considering moving here full-time.

Although I flew out to Bergen on Sunday night on a direct flight from Gatwick, limited availability meant I had to return via Schipol. My latest commuting story begins at Bergen airport...

'Hi - do you think I should check this bag or carry it on the plane ?'

'Its entirely up to you, Sir. I can check your bag all the way through to London.'

'OK. Great. So you're promising me that when I reach Heathrow, my bag will also get there.'

'Well, we can only hope so, Sir.'

'OK. Thanks. I'll check it into the hold.'

'As you wish, Sir. Now, is there any way someone could have interfered with this bag or placed items in it without your knowledge ?'

'Well, we can only hope not.'

As soon as the words left my mouth, I immediately felt a pang of regret, a twinge of remorse at cracking such a weak joke. This sense of regret turned into blind panic, and total fear 10 minutes later when I found myself in a windowless room, buried deep in the bowels of Bergen airport.

'Henrick, some new latex gloves, please. Now, Sir, please to be bending over.'

Anyway, after enduring the rather extended, lengthy and, err, in-depth security checking procedure, I arrived in Amsterdam and managed to navigate from C15 to D24 without further incident. It was quite easy. You just move your Knight twice and castle on the Kings' side.

Irritatingly, there was yet another lightweight security check at the entrance to gate D24. This took forever as the entire population of China was on this short hop to London and were carrying suitcases, coats, souvenirs, carrier bags, duty free goods and small, colourful birds onto the plane rather than use the hold for some reason.

After waiting 25 minutes in the lengthy queue, I didn't really want to be told rather disdainfully by the security guard: 'Sir, are you aware you need to at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure ?'

'Yes - I am well aware of that. I was actually here at the gate 45 minutes prior to departure but are you aware I have been standing in line for 25 minutes because you are so flipping slow ?'

Finally, I clear security and stand in yet another queue to board the plane. My boarding card says I am right at the front handily positioned in seat 2C in the luxury of business class.

Normally, I travel economy which is fair enough as the customer is paying and the flights are only short hops within Europe. The business travel flight booking system is similar to the Lottery Balls Selector. You never quite know how it is programmed or what results it will produce. Nor can you ever question its decision which is final. However, for some reason, on this return trip to Bergen, the random business travel flight booking system has elected to book me into business class on both legs.

In fact, on the outward journey from Gatwick, this was a little embarrassing. I was the only passenger on a half-empty plane so I was privileged enough to have the sole, exclusive, undivided attention of one, pretty air hostess all to myself.

Every 30 seconds, she would appear with a beaming smile: 'Champagne, Sir ?, 'Hot towel, Sir ?', 'Another drink, Sir ?', 'Pretzels, Sir ?', 'Hot meal, Sir ?', 'Newspaper, Sir ?, 'Could I offer you a beer perhaps, Sir ?' God, it was never ending. It was eerily reminiscent of the 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' sketch where Pamela Stephenson invites an American Express customer 'Would you like to put your head between them and go 'Bubble, bubble bubble ?'. Almost but not quite.

I finally enter the plane and look at seat 2C which, oddly enough is on the first row. However, this means there is no hook on which to hang my coat and there is some metal fixture preventing me placing my laptop under my seat. I start to panic and look towards the overhead lockers. Inevitably, as this flight is completely full, so are the overhead lockers.

There is a hanging cupboard to my right where coats and overflow luggage has been stowed with some spare capacity so I quickly remove my coat. In my rush, I forget that I am wired into my iTouch and the my earphones are pulled out of my ears leaving wires dangling everywhere. A helpful Dutch Gentleman interjects:

'Excuse me - but your ears are on the floor.'

Quick as a flash, I reply: 'Hey come on, My ears are pretty big but they don't reach down that far.' He laughs. Nervously. The air stewardess is now desperately trying to close the flight and do the very important passenger count (2-4-8-11-15-17, doh, 2-4-8). She looks my way and enquires: 'Excuse me, Sir but is that your laptop ?'. As I am still embroiled in the continuing, unarmed struggle to disentangle my ears from the iTouch and my coat, I look over and nod.

'Well I am sorry, Sir, but you have placed your laptop on top of the the defibrillator so I will just have to find another place for it.' Her tone implied I had committed a capital offence and I honestly feared she was going to place my Lenovo T61 on the left wing of the aircraft.

Finally, we sit down to be told in two languages (but not Chinese) that the rush to board was all for nothing as now there is a small problem with the navigation system which the engineer is coming fix and then 'we will be on our way, flying to London'.

Time passes - we listen to music, we read papers, we look out of the window looking for a laptop bag. An engineer in blue overalls arrives and leaves, laughing and joking. I think I heard him say to the first officer: 'Yes - if it happens again during the flight just reboot it.'

The smooth talking pilot announces: 'Ladies and gentlemen, the navigation system is now fully operational so we will just have a 10 minute taxi to the runway and we will on on our way.'

I must have dozed off, tired after 4 days of intense work and a night in a Bergen sports bar, drinking expensive Norwegian lager, watching United somehow contrive to lose to a Championship side.

When I awoke, I stretched out, looked at my watch and glanced out of the window to find we have arrived in London. I must have slept so soundly I had even missed the descent and more importantly, my complimentary bread roll, metal cutlery and glass of wine.

I unbuckled my seat belt when my well spoken neighbour informed me: 'We are still at Schipol. We haven't taken off yet. There is a problem de-icing the plane.'

I buckled up again, grunted my appreciation and put wires into my oversized ears. Eventually, another engineer popped down to the aircraft equivalent of Halfords, a fresh aerosol can of de-icer arrived and we taxied to join the rear of a lengthy queue of large aircraft waiting to depart to various destinations.

Finally, we took off and I was able to enjoy my bread roll and glass of wine. I arrived in London just an hour late. So did my bag and I got home at 10:30pm - a full seven and a half hours after I had left Bergen.

Just quickly reviewed the number of posts in each full year since I started this blog.

• 2008 - 94
• 2007 - 219
• 2006 - 395

What does it all mean ? Not sure. Does it matter ? Probably not.

Amazon (UK) recently announced an online music store and a £3 discount on all music downloads on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

To download an album, you need the Amazon Download utility and the music is MP3 format encoded at 256kbps. Best of all, the music is DRM free so you can transfer, copy and play on any device. Normally, I like to buy an actual CD so I can rip into whatever format I need and also as a backup so 'The Seldom Seen Kid' by 'Elbow' was my first ever purchase of online music.

Downloaded music is automatically added to iTunes or Media Player and the only glitch was that the Downloader didn't appear to work under Google Chrome.

As this album (and quite a few others) only costs £3, this album was free. As in beer.

Just been down to Asda. Not because I am a Nineties man but mainly because the element on the kettle just blew.

I went fully equipped with what I believe is known as a 'shopping list'. I managed to decipher all of the entries (some were written by Norma) and successfully secured everything. I was debating whether to pay at a till or risk self-service where you swipe your own goods.

As I reviewed and cross-checked the list for a final time, I found to my horror one solitary item unaccounted for.

Worse, it wasn't Norma's handwriting. Worse still, the final, indeterminate item was written by me.

I could have left it but when you suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder that is easier said than done. In any case, what if the item was important ? What if the item was needed for tea tonight ?

I paused for thought, pushing my trolley to the side by 'Chocolates and Confectionery' and studied the shopping list intently. I still couldn't decipher the writing. I turned my head through 90'. Still no joy.

A friendly, helpful shop assistant approached. 'Can I help you, Sir ?'

'No really. It's OK. I'm fine. Thanks. Just looking at Liquorice Allsorts for my Dad for Christmas. He loves them, you see'.

'You're not having problems reading the shopping list, your wife gave you, are you ?'

'God no. Of course not. In any case, I wrote some of it.'

'Here - let me have a look'. I reluctantly passed the assistant the shopping list.

She scrutinised the scrap of paper. 'Well it can't be that. We don't sell it. Nor do Sainsbury's.' She then turned her head through 90'. 'Hmm - it sounds stupid but, honestly, that's my best guess - 'Goat's Head'.

'Yeah. Thanks. That's what I thought it was. It was probably my son messing around. He's a Goth, you see.

'Listen - do you want me to ask Eric ? He's really good at these handwriting puzzles.'

'No. Listen, it's OK. Honestly, Thanks a lot for all your help. I'll just leave it for now.

I hurriedly made my way to a manned till as I simply dare not risk any more potential embarrassment at the self-service tills with items that fail to scan, causing interminable delays.

Phew - the ordeal is finally over. I put the shopping list back in my pocket and start to pack the shopping.

As I hang a bumper pack of 24 toilet rolls onto the handy hook on back of the trolley and prepare to pay, I hear a demented shriek: 'WAIT - DON'T LET HIM LEAVE THE STORE !'

The plain clothed store detective perks up and security men start to move menacingly towards me.

I spot the previously helpful shop assistant sprinting towards me from aisle 11 (Ice Cream and Frozen Vegetables), carrying something.

People from adjacent tills are now staring at me and I feel myself starting to redden. The security guard is now brandishing a pair of silver handcuffs with a worrying gleam in his eye.

The shop assistant finally reaches the till and triumphantly throws down two 'Go Ahead' bars (Strawberry and Fruits of the Forest).

'I asked Eric. He took one look and said: 'Come on - this one's obvious. It's not 'Goat's Head' - but 'Go Ahead'.

Pownce (a microblogging service) has been sold to SixApart and decided to close the service on December 15 which is a nice early Christmas present for all their users - both freeloaders (like me) and 'Pro' users who pay $20 per year.

Although I have a dormant Pownce account, I don't actively use the service. However, I find it odd that Pownce have decided to close the service and provide all their users with just two weeks notice to extract all their data and find another home.

The Pownce blog claims that:

'we believe we'll come back with something much better in 2009'

However, that 'belief' must be pretty weak and the date in 2009 must be a long way away. Otherwise, why on earth would Pownce and SixApart force all the existing Pownce users to evaluate and migrate to alternative services if a viable, better alternative was being planned.

Will those users really come running back to SixApart after being kicked out ? When they're already been forced to move once ? After the way they've been treated ?

Surely, it would have been better to do what Google did with Jaiku. Absolutely nothing. Leave the service exactly as it is with no fixes, no improvements, no additional services or functionality. That way, the hardcore, diehard users will remain on Pownce and, at least, you have a hope of getting those users converted onto the new SixApart product (whenever it is available). There are a few obvious choices for Pownce users:

• Twitter - more stability and increased uptime recently but limited to 140 characters (unlike Pownce) and inferior support for file sharing.
• Tumblr - probably the closest match in terms of functionality (no 140 character limit, support for media posts (images, links, audio, videos)
• FriendFeed - includes most of Pownce functionality.
• identi.ca - micro-blogging service but OpenSource so the opportunity exists to run a separate Laconica instance for Pownce users and potentially support the Pownce API (and hence all existing desktop Pownce clients).
• Posterous - supports MP3, photos, audio files and posting by email.

In fact, identi.ca have already responded to the imminent demise of Pownce and started work on the ability to import Pownce feeds into identi.ca and are actively looking for developers to assist with providing a Pownce compatible API.

However, I suspect the main issues here for disillusioned Pownce users aren't purely technical and won't necessarily depend on the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative services. The key factor will probably be the 'community' which has now been suddenly and forcibly broken up.

I suspect most Pownce users are on Pownce for a reason - they like the Pownce service and they like the community they have forged on Pownce. Consequently, I suspect a significant number will simply migrate wherever the majority of their friends go to or maintain multiple presences.

I also suspect that most Pownce users may well have already considered (and rejected) alternatives that were around (Twitter, Tumblr, FriendFeed) when they originally chose to sign up with Pownce which may be another positive factor in identi.ca's favour.

Yesterday was 1 December and an innocuous post on identi.ca about an Advent calendar immediately reminded me of an amusing (and completely true) blog post I wrote two years ago.

This, in turn, prompted me to write this short note on identi.ca and the post on identi.ca subsequently appeared on my FriendFeed stream.

Normally, when I post a new blog entry, the post gets visited by a handful of people - presumably a subset of those subscribed to this blog. In this case, this wasn't a new post so regular RSS readers wouldn't see this content so any visitors had to come from identi.ca or FriendFeed.

Despite having over 150 subscribers on identi.ca and 21 'friends' on FriendFeed, only a couple of people clicked through to the 'eat your own dog food' post when it appeared on identi.ca and FriendFeed. This isn't unusual (for me, at least) - the same pattern happens with any new blog content.

My very good friend and Oracle colleague, the right honourable Emperor of Ontario (possible pseudonym alert) had recently signed up to reddit.com and was curious about the viral effect of reddit and how it might be used to help generate traffic to a blog.

Ontario Emperor kindly submitted my humble blog post to Reddit under the category 'Funny'. When I became aware of this, I monitored the Web server logs and immediately saw a lot of traffic generated from reddit. At one point, the post reached No. 15 on Reddit's 'Funny' page and 6 people 'liked' the entry.

The traffic spike was short lived (similar pattern to getting a post on StumbleUpon). However, although the increase in traffic is interesting and briefly satisfying, it is really not that useful for a blogger because:

• Reddit generated visitors are almost always 'one-hit wonders'. They visit one page and immediately leave.
• Reddit generated visitors are unlikely to linger on the site and explore other content.
• Reddit generated visitors are unlikely to comment and resurrect conversation over a two year old post.
• Reddit generated visitors are unlikely to subscribe to your blog.
• Reddit generated visitors are all new visitors to your blog. Consequently, they don't understand the context, the author, the history, the sense of humour or the writing style.

As a brilliant example of the last point, a solitary comment was left on the blog post by a Reddit visitor. The comment was so superlative, so funny, so brilliant, I have chosen to reproduce it here in all its glory to save you all the trouble of a time-consuming, pesky mouse click.

why r u so cruel to your own children?

can u not be a little more sympathetic?

You shouldn't need to explain yourself. You shouldn't have to put sign posts up everywhere. You shouldn't feel obliged to use the tag 'Humour'. You shouldn't need to insert a plethora of emoticons just for passing visitors idiots.

And that is why Reddit is completely useless to bloggers.