Fans of the show Lost and chocolate might like to try and get their hands on the latest release from Channel 4, a chocolate bar tied to the television series. 

Why a chocolate bar? Well keen watchers might have noticed some of the characters tucking into the suspicious looking Apollo and hoped that they might be able to enjoy one themselves (well, it does take all sorts…). Now you can, but only by visiting a comic book store and saying something bizarre – and no, I don’t mean “do you have anything that doesn’t involve lycra and ‘outer pants’?” 

According to the bar’s website it is distributed by the murky Hanso Foundation - who may or may not be responsible for the island’s polar bears, black smoky clouds, and the clogging up of my Sky Plus system. 

Some 10,000 bars have been made up, or released from some non-perishing food container, for distribution as part of the Channel 4 Lost experience. Included in the packaging of 200 of the bars is a code that when inputted into a certain web site grants you access to some hidden clips, secret information, and possibly some photos involving Kate and swimwear. 

Chocolate gives me a headache. As this bar is dark chocolate I might as well just stay at home and close a door on my skull. For anyone that is interested, today’s bizarre’s code is Enzo Valenzetti. If you are anywhere near a Forbidden Planet, pop in, enjoy the chocolate and share the wealth.

Being a bit of a glutton for watching the uber-rich sneer at poor, sweaty people stumbling over their words I am a fan of BBC2’s Dragon's Den. 

I especially enjoyed the episode last night as amongst all the people hawking foot scrubbing shower mats, a yoga course aimed at children (don’t they suffer enough?) and, er, cucumber tip protectors, stood one man offering a technical solution that made a lot of sense. 

Ian Chamings, a one time university DJ (read: someone with turntables), and one time patent attorney (read: wise inventor), had come up with an algorithm that would let a computer automatically, and rather effectively, mix together two dance records, without it sounding like someone throwing two blaring iPods into a liftshaft. 

The idea was that through his web site people would buy about ten tracks, run them through the mixing tool and then burn off a mixed compilation CD with none of those annoying silent pauses between songs. Chamings explained all this, then stuck out a hand and asked for £150k in exchange for a 20 percent stake in the firm. 

He probably wanted the money to further the site, or to order up some branded mouse mats – at this stage my phone rang – I don’t watch telly professionally you know. In the early stages of his presentation it looked like the only reason the Dragons would reach for the cash wads would be to throw them at the chap, but after a while when they got the idea and that “ker-ching” noise rang in their heads, they sat up, paid attention and whacked their wads on the counter. 

The result, Ian Chamings came away owning 40 percent less of his invention – and web site, but £150,000 richer. 

So have they hit the ground running? Is the site on its way to selling the 1m songs Peter Jones estimated it needed to sell in the first year? Well, today, the day after the show was broadcast you might expect that that quite a few of those songs would start flying off the virtual shelves and onto the virtual 1210s making a good start to the precedings. 

So, is the site a-whizzing and a-banging, drawing in those tempted punters and siphoning off their money? Nah, don’t be stupid. Why the hell would it be doing that? It makes much more sense for it to be unavailable, and “comming soon” (sic). 

Doesn’t it?

As you might have noticed loyal readers, I have an iPod.

What am I talking about? Of course you know that… you bought it for me at Christmas didn’t you mum.

Anyway, last month my headphones gave up the ghost and started to make crackling noises – meaning that any song I listened to had the accompaniment of a pig eating some crisps. Not ideal, especially since I went through that phase when I was at university.

Having seen my last two pairs of headphones give out after about six months I thought I would spend a little more on the wax collectors this time round so I went for these natty green things from Sennheiser – a firm known for producing the world's best microphones.

The packaging said all the right things: “includes an ear adaptor for adapting the size of the earbuds”, and it boasted that its “ergonomic design ensures optimum fit and comfort during sports” – key ingredients for a decent set of headphones. So I didn’t think I would have much problem sitting down on the train listening to them.

Well, I was wrong. They leak sound like tea bags leak tea, and fall out of my ears so often I started to think I had really big ears. I don’t, however, I have fairly normal sized ears – at no point during my schooling did anyone suggest that I might have been the “flipping FA Cup”. But, and with some reservation, I switched to the slightly larger earbuds, which are included in the packaging as “accessories”.

These were slightly better. They would fall out of my ears when I am walking, though not when sitting down – a significant improvement. But they needed a bigger test than a simple preamble. Luckily – well, for review purposes at least, I received a bank statement this weekend which informed me that I am a member of a gym. So, sweat bands in place, I thought I would take my “sports” headphones down there and see how they perform.   

In short, they perform badly. I spent more time picking them up and putting them back in my ears than I did anything else, and that includes standing around the water fountain looking pale. They are, and I sincerely hope that someone from Sennheiser trips over my blog like I tripped over their trailing cables, totally unsuitable for me, and my use. The result is, I am watching £30 float out of my window.

Oh, and the packaging follows the rules that “no man shall enter this without a very sharp knife and an ass designed for heavy pulling”, so there is no way I can take them back to the shop.

Nice one Sennheiser you bunch of “crrrkkkkk, hisssss…" fall out...

I’m really enjoying Time Magazine’s list of the top fifty cool web sites for 2005, mostly because hardly any of the sites are what you call perennials, or cool.

Announcing its list Time says this, “Many of this year's choices are shining examples of Web 2.0: next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips.” So why then does it contain sites that haven’t moved far away from the infamous hamster dance?
 
How ‘cool’ for example is cuteoverload , a site which eatures er ‘cute’ photographs of animals? Or Yu Gi Oh Groove? A page that has robots from a potentially seizure inducing Japanese cartoon series dancing badly, to bad music. Not very, possibly.

You got to love those cute animals though.

Opposition to the United States’ Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (Cope) Act of 2006, is growing, in fact, it's bulging like so many cheap shiny costumes right now thanks to the combined efforts of a gaggle of internet ‘legends’. 

I’m all for Net Neutrality. Who would be against something that calls for the freedom of the internet, and fights against the possibility of a fast lane for some sites, walled-gardens and paid for content? Probably anyone that has been exposed to the “We are the Web” fight for the internet project. 

We are the Web is hosted by a frightening looking lady, who we learn comes from gemsweaters.com – a site I have never heard of, and numbers among its members a weirdo in some Peter Pan getup, and Tron Guy – who I am aware of, and respect… in a funny sort of way. 

The site contains lots of information about the US bill that could pave the way for content providers to make a great big mess of the internet, as well as details of how you can join the fight, such as buttons and banners that you can download. 

Sadly it also contains a video containing some of the most horrifying images I have ever seen. You can see it, and all the other stuff, by going to the site and navigating your way to “watch the video”. Be prepared to hear some of the worst music to assault your ears since Celine Dion honked up “My heart will go on” and the sort of video you should only see in Clockwork Orange style training videos. 

Ah, I’m just being cynical, probably because I spent most of lunchtime humming the damn chorus! Good luck to them, I sincerely hope that their cause succeeds. 

Remember, we should all love the web and keep it free. After all, as the great man himself says: “the internet brought the Tron Guy to life….” So come on people! Let's solve this problem and send this lot back to their day jobs.

Well I had my doubts, but the iCarta, which I blogged about in an earlier post, has actually been started shipping. 

The mind boggles as to why anyone would want a toilet roll holder that doubles up as an iPod dock, but there must be a market out there… somewhere. 

However, I do doubt the claims of the iCarta manufacturer which say, “Now you can Enhance your Experience in any room with your favourite music from your iPod.” Sure, I guess you could. But only if you also wanted to enhance your toilet paper awareness in any room of the house.

Okay, so I will admit that I did get a bit carried away with my post about ladies in IT. I really should have trodden a little more carefully around the area. On closer inspection I’m not sure that I can even believe that it is for real – which makes me look even more foolish.

Maybe it is real,  maybe it is not. But either way, it is a pretty bad idea. Who wants a paper calendar these days anyway? I used an online one and even though I sit in front of a computer all day I still forget to check it and end up missing important meetings, like lunch. I don’t think that a calendar that features gurning IT gurlies is going to do me any better.

My colleague Madeline Bennett is right when she calls the calendar a “sad reminder of the difficulty women have in climbing the IT ladder”. Rather than encourage ladies into the unloved, unthanked IT department it is more likely to encourage more nerdy blokes in.

Does any IT department really need that?