In the dying months of 2008 I wrote of my efforts to design a better calendar.

I'm grateful to all the comments I've received. In response, I've made a few improvements:

• The lines between the days have been thinned from 1mm to 0.4mm.
• The colours were originally based off the spectrum. In order to remove any confusion, they have been reversed.
• The month names have been reduced from 15pt to 10pt.

Without further ado, here's the first version of the 2009 calendar.

Here's a recipe for making oatmeal and raisin cookies. The ingredients are the same as I was given but the method has been simplified somewhat.

Ingredients

175g butter
1/4 tsp salt (if butter unsalted)
160g light brown sugar
130g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking soda (known to work without)
3/4 tsp baking powder
160g plain flour

170g rolled oats
200g raisins

Method

1. Using one bowl, add everything up to and including the plain flour.
2. Mix the contents together.
3. Add the oats and the raisins
4. Mix the contents together.
5. Drop dough on to an ungreased baking sheet with a 5cm gap between blobs.
6. Bake at 190°C for 10 minutes (in a fan assisted oven)
7. Leave to cool

According to Wikipedia, "The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement." For reference the formula is:

There's no variable for population, so my yearly average of 5.2 thousand Watts in 2003 would give me a measly score of −.23. However, I think my score should be the same as my civilization, which is Type 0.71.

So, I've re-formed the formula to factor in population while giving me approximately the same answer:

All very good. Now imagine that I'm part of Type I civilization, what would my yearly average be? The answer comes to a staggering 4 million Watts. Just for me. A question for a science fiction author might be "What does a civilization look like if everyone has access to a few MegaWatts?"

According to Wikipedia, the United_Kingdom has a per capita GDP of US$37,328 which (according to Google) is about £20,223. Again from Wikipedia, average annual working hours in the UK is 1652.

So, on average, the UK worker is paid £14.40 per hour (before tax). What's interesting about this is that the calculation can be done the other way:

To put this in more personal terms, approximately 4.1 minutes of your life is worth £1. You'll never see that four minutes again; you'll never get it back.

I love the BBC's iPlayer. There's just one problem - every few minutes my screen goes to sleep and I have to wiggle the mouse.

This problem can be mitigated by using a tool called Caffeine from Lighthead Software. Except I forget to switch it off and the machine stay active all night.

So, I've written my own Mac OS X site-specific browser for iPlayer and named it Curtains. When this application opens it goes straight to the iPlayer. When you're on an episode page, the screen will not dim.

So, if this meets your use case too, feel free to download and give it a go:

Curtains

Additionally, there is a project page.