Mixed Signals

Psion Series 5 day! Delighted to find before the press conference that the company has set up the Web pages for the new PDA, and although it hasn't linked them in they're easy to find by poking around. Get a quick blast out on PC Daily News before anyone else. Then we ambush Guy Kewney as he arrives from the press conference clutching one of the beasts: we shackle him to his desk until he produces the first review - again, as far as we know, anywhere in the world.

Wonderful, this Web stuff! Think it'll catch on?

Tuesday

One of the great things about this job is meeting famous people. I know one's supposed to be journalistically objective, but anyone who claims to be unaffected by schmoozing at a party with Bill Gates (only once, a long time ago. I'm sure he remembers) or chatting with Tim Berners-Lee about Web design is having a wee porky-fest.

Today, I get to talk to Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka. OK, so he's over there and I'm in Pimlico, but the principle's sound. A boyhood hero. I can still remember the impact Childhood's End made on a young Goodwins; I'll never be able to talk to Asimov or Philip Dick, at least in this universe, but the inventor of the geosynchronous satellite and the creator of 2001 is on the line right now.

Only he's not. Indian accents say 'He's not in

Bonjour, mes amies. Aujourd'hui nous parlons Franglaise

Microsoft, my very favourite software company, has a big security announcement to make. In order to prevent people from downloading dangerous ActiveX components from the Web, the company says, the next issue of Explorer will classify Web sites into (I paraphrase) 'very safe', 'safe', 'dodgy' and 'don't touch'.

As an exercise in solving the underlying security flaws in ActiveX it's on a par with categorising areas of the UK as good, bad and indifferent. One wonders how AOL will cope with having its Web site stamped as 'don't touch'; under the proposed scheme, it's certainly impossible to say anything else about it, because AOL as a service provider has no way--and no interest--in filtering what its users put up. However, there are many good places on AOL where small companies and other groups can make some damn fine ideas available to all

Bank Holiday. Ate bacon sandwiches, wrote science fiction, nursed head after weekend of birthday celebration. It's nice to churn out words that don't have megabytes or baud rates attached