It was a nice way to start (link works in the UK only), as was his apology, unnecessary as it was — seriously, if you doubt that statement, listen via YouTube (Warning: Daily Mail readers may find this offensive):
Part 1:

Part 2:

I think the advert may be right — I watched Shrek the Third (which was great) and tonight Die Hard 4.0 (the perfect action film). This summer also has Rush Hour 3, Harry Potter, Transformers, The Simpsons and Evan Almighty to name a few.

The most classic trailer of all time is The Simpsons one though. Marge: “Why are there trotter prints all over the ceiling?”. I was still laughing in the car on the way home! Actually, I chuckled a couple of times when writing this too.

Note: I’m not telling you what the answer to that is.
Update 11:09am 08/07/2007: Found the answer here though somehow it’s not so funny when you haven’t seen the rest of the trailer so resist the urge.

So when Alan Drew tells us on his blog that Mr Clarkson has written a piece on Mr Hamster’s crash and recovery, you’ll know its entertaining.

And in the same way as his appearance makes me watch the BBC, Mr Clarkson’s piece has prompted my first reading of The Sun in quite a long, snobby time.

Apparently he was supposed to be collecting an IT expert from BBC’s Television Centre when the IT expert’s name was called. He raised his arm and was bundled off to the studio. Watch the video and replay his reaction when he realises who they think he is!

There are two reasons (that I have discovered so far) that it is not yet ready for the UK:
- It can remind you by SMS of events you have scheduled in your calendar only in the US;
- It can locate your meeting for you by Google Maps based on the location you enter, but only for the US.

There are also two teething problems so far:
1. Importing my work calendar from Outlook created all the events in the evening which were actually supposed to be in the day. Events at 9am were instead starting around 7pm (1900) and all other events were in the same relative position.
2. Importing a calendar of UK Public Holidays (one of the most powerful features of Google Calendar IMHO) fails completely as does any other calendar I try to import (like a schedule of XX football team’s fixtures).

Other than those comments, though, this is set to change the way we do business. If you have a meeting with clients from another company, check their Google Calendar and you know when’s convenient for them. If you have a heavy schedule and fail to see friends because of it, share your calendar with them and organise time in a transparent way.

The calendar can be shared either completely or by showing time free/busy or not shared at all. You can invite people to create their own Google Calendar and, when you start to type in the e-mail address, the addresses you have saved or previously typed into Gmail suddenly appear.

It really is excellent — I haven’t yet finished playing.

If you want to try it out, try and view my calendar using my gmail account which is my name with a full-stop between each of my names!

How long before most of what you do relies on Google? I already rely on it!

1) The policeman mispronounced “lever” using the American short “er” at the end;
2) The Conservatives are not likely to be the bad guys in this scenario.

Otherwise, though I am itching to make further comment, I shall resist so that you can all watch it free from spoilers.

They have, though, got one aspect wrong. The BBC’s website is the best in the world bar Google and it would be a disaster if that was stopped. This is especially true given that the convergence, which was once the mot de jour, will eventually make current television look very linear and old-fashioned.