Like… just… like… wow

You may or may not be aware of the existence of Justin Bieber. Exploding from Canada (also responsible for Celine Dion and Queensryche, in case you're thinking of a UN tribunal), he's the latest teenaged product of the conveyor belt pop industry and he is massively popular.

He sounds like this, unfortunately,



Unless you slow him down 800 times, in which case you get this rather magnificent Sigur Ros style ambient epic, lasting half an hour in the majestic full version.

What's the worst piece of software you've ever used?

A bit nerdy I know, but I'm boiling with fury.

Windows doesn't count, by the way. Not that I use it.

I'm nominating PebblePad. If you work in the real world, it's a proprietary e-portfolio designed by someone in Wolves University.

PebblePad has been designed to three key tenets: advanced functionality, maximum flexibility and simple usability

Bollocks. I'm a semi-professional geek. I love computing, so if I'm screaming at this pixellated turd, it's definitely crap. It's older than my gran and less user-friendly. To upload a document requires a training session and a MINIMUM of ten actions, none of them intuitive. It runs slower than than a disabled snail and has all the grace of a Bosch gargoyle. Half the PGCE course was spent trying to make us use this bloody thing, until they realised that the only way to do it was to make us submit our work using it. The effect, however, is to reinforce my hatred and determination that none of you, students, will ever have to go near it on any of my courses again (if I keep my job after this post of course).

I'm having to listen to a lot of Sigur Ros to keep my blood pressure down.

I'm adding 'use PebblePad' to the 'list of things I won't do for love'.

Sigur Ros, Wolverhampton

I saw Sigur Ros (footage unfortunately not from Wolves) last night, at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. The band were astonishing - ethereal in places, uncompromising in others. More so than on record, they submerged John Cale, Steve Reich and an awful lot of folk music into an enormous racket - received joyfully by a sell-out crowd which comprised every cool kid in Wolverhampton, a lot of parents, and me. It was certainly a good warm-up for an all-night election vigil.