This weeks favourites were chosen by comedian/musician ; we caught up with him in the dressing room of fellow Buzzcocks panellist Phill Jupitus, where he was surreptitiously depositing a suit of armour.
Bill Bailey's favourite bookmarks were the and . His anti-favourite - .
The stories and interviewees covered in today's programme:
Census
Worries over the security of data in the upcoming census - we spoke to Philip Redfern and director of the at the Office for National Statistics - Glen Watson.
Favourites
Comedian/musician shared his favourite bookmarks.
Dr Blog
Chris Vallance updated us on the PM Listeners Map, and gazed into the crystal ball with predictions for 2008 from Jessica Greenwood of .
Language
Aided and abetted by Radio 4's Peter Donaldson and - a beginners guide to some of the newest words on the web.
This was the last programme in the current run. But the door never shuts on any ideas or stories that you would like us to consider. We'll be back in 2008, and in the meantime the blog will continue. You can click "Suggest a story" in the top right hand corner or email: ipm { at } bbc.co.uk
UPDATE: Thanks to all who contributed to the map. As Eddie mentioned submission of postcodes is now closed. However, if you posted a letter to us before the deadline we'll post that even if the Christmas mail delays its arrival at PM towers. EDDIE ADDS on 31 Dec: We are still getting a regular stream of postcodes sent to us. We're sorry but nothing we received after thje Friday before Christmas will be added to the current map. Though who knows what we'll do in future!
GEORGE WRITES:
Here's the map we discussed on the programme this week. We asked you to tell us where you were listening and you responded in droves. We've received 17,000+ 22,000+ emails at the last count, and so far we've added about four eight nineteen thousand them all.
The best place to see the map is on . This is a free programme but requires an install. Once it is installed on your computer you can view the map by clicking here.
You can also see the locations on Google Maps, but due to the large number of markers, it won't show all the pins at one time, and tends to be less precise than in Google Earth. To see more pins, simply zoom in and out to the general area you would like to view, using the '+' and '-' controls in the top-left-hand corner of the map.
We want to 'mashup' this data with other interesting sources, so let us know in the comments if there's any interesting data we could mix this up with. You can also mashup the data yourself in Google Earth - tell us if you do so and we'll highlight the best ones here on the blog.
UPDATE: Chris says: I took a trip around Google Earth with Eddie. A little hard to translate something so visual into sound..so here is a video of our route.
We mentioned a couple of things to see. The , you can also watch . Rising sea levels are For other interesting things to see in Googe Earth tryor
Thanks to everyone who's been commenting on iPM's Fraudband Britain story, covering the large gap between advertised broadband speeds and the actual speeds we're getting.
Our original post asked you to test your broadband speed and rate it against the package you bought. You can see the results of our rather unscientific survey and also the response from Ofcom
iPM listener Phil Whitley who installing broadband in rural areas - wrote detailed advice on the blog about getting the best from your broadband. So we invited him to elaborate. He explains some of the reasons why we're not getting the advertising broadband speed, why line tests are not very effective and some key things to check to make sure you're getting the best possible speed for your connection.
The next will take place in 2011. The who it would like to carry out the work. It's a big contract and it's subject that we've already looked into in some detail. . But in these , deciding who gets to contract is also . Given that participation in the census is compulsory, there is that one of the shortlisted firms is a huge foreign defence contractor. is battling it out with to provide data capture and storage services for the 2011 Census.
Lockheed were involved and have that no information will leave the Government facilities operated by the . Nevertheless, as well as the role of the and its impact on those tasked to carry out the survey. object to Lockheed on a point of principle.
We've been speaking to ONS Census Director - Glen Watson. How seriously does he take data security?
We also hope to hear from Lockheed and Philip Redfern, retired director from of who.
We recently asked is Facebook doomed? Let's assume will move with the times, in which case is this answer?
Thanks to Steve
You told us how unhappy you are with the speed of your broadband. Today, has . Broadband firms face formal action if they fail to get their act together.
Ben Wallis from Ofcom's Consumer Panel has been looking at your comments and has written this for the iPM blog. Please let him know what you think. ..
"The , the independent body that advises Ofcom, has asked Ofcom to take a lead in tackling consumer concerns about advertised broadband connection speeds.
Surveys by and magazine in the summer showed that most people get their broadband at far slower speeds than the 芒聙聹up to 8MB芒聙聺 speeds that figure so prominently in the advertising. This gap will only grow wider with the arrival soon of ADSL2+ and more packages of 芒聙聹up to 24MB芒聙聺 and beyond.
In October . We made suggestions about how they could give their customers clearer information to understand the factors that influence the speed of their broadband connection, and more flexibility if the service doesn芒聙聶t live up to their expectations.
After hearing from the ISPs, asking the regulator to lead discussions with the industry. We asked them to produce an enforceable code of practice to give customers the best information during and after the sales process. We also want customers to have the flexibility to move freely to different packages that reflect the actual speeds with which their ISPs are able to provide them.
We芒聙聶ve also asked the to tighten up the advertising of broadband speeds so that, instead of being found in the small print, much greater prominence is given to the range of factors that affect the speeds you can get. Ofcom immediately to the Consumer Panel, welcoming the lead we've taken and outlining the ways in which it plans to tackle the issues we raised.
We would love to hear your views.
Ben Wallis, Policy Executive, Ofcom Consumer Panel
Here's what is in the mix so far. As ever, in the coming days this will change.
This weeks favourites were picked by Booker prize-winning novelist , who told us Google had revolutionised how she researches her books.
A.S. Byatt's picks were:
and
Mike Bowman's self-portait he sent iPM
Thanks to everyone for contributing to the iPM photo gallery. We're approaching the end of our first series on air - but the blog continues as usual.
When we first set up the gallery on the Flickr photo-sharing website, we thought we'd make it as easy as possible for everyone who wanted to take a picture that reflected 'i' and we added all the images emailed to the iPM Flickr group on behalf of our audience. However, Flickr asks that everyone adds their own pictures for copyright and legal reasons.
So, unfortunately, we'll be taking down the images we uploaded on your behalf on Friday 21 December 07. Those of you who added your own images - thanks very much and they'll remain.
You're still very welcome to contribute, but bear in mind you'll need a Flickr account to do so. All the information is in our earlier post.
Thanks again and drop us a line if you have any queries - ipm@bbc.co.uk
If you are a new to iPM - hello and welcome. This is where the programme starts to take shape. If there's a story you think we should cover, or an issue that you'd like to hear on the programme - tell us in the comments section here or drop us an email - ipm {@} bbc.co.uk.
Thanks to those of all 20,000 of you who've sent us your postcode and we appreciate your patience as we get them all onto our map - 9,000 in, 11,000 to go...
Ideas from Tuesday's production meeting:
Following up on Bob Hill's comment on CO2 emmissions and population policy, Rupert's looking at how many people are there in the UK and what's the link with our environmental footprint? He first blogged about the UK population figures in early November and later considered if a population register was the way to go.
And he's interested in what the bloggers are predicting for 2008...
What does the Foundation for Information Policy Research think? Who champions the benefits of centralised databases and who is deeply concerned that they'll lead to more identity fraud - perhaps we can bring them together.
He'll be looking at the new vocabularly entering our lives from the internet - And considering why set to rival Wikipedia.
I'm looking at who's blogging about the Muslim pilgrimmage, the Hajj, this week and we have an interesting follow up on our broadband speed story from last week.
View our list of del.icio.us links to see other websites catching our attention:
The stories and interviewees covered in Saturday's programme:
Fraudband Britain
We heard from listener and broadband tester Jennifer Rohn, the Minister for Competitiveness and James Blessing of the .
Favourites
This week the award winning writer shared her favourite bookmarks
Where you live
Chris Vallance talked us through the fabulous new PM Listeners Google Map. Don't worry if you can't see your postcode entry, we are loading in more in as we go and this will take us time. Our guests were the founder of , and from and , social software consultant
++ update - on air we were short on time, so we will add Richard and Suw to the podcast.
Ten years of www.bbc.co.uk
To mark the tenth anniversary of bbc.co.uk, we spoke to former 麻豆社 Director General, - and those early pioneers in 1997 who got it all rolling.
We're back for the last programme in the current run next week. But the door never shuts on any ideas or stories that you would like us to consider. You can click "Suggest a story" in the top right hand corner or email: ipm { at } bbc.co.uk
PS Thx JC for spotting the typos.
Thanks to all of you who carried out the speed test on your internet connection. We got almost 600 responses which we've now crunched - and it appears a great deal of people paying for high-speed internet aren't getting even half of the speed they signed up for. We'll investigate the data and the issues in the programme tomorrow.
The results don't give a full picture, since this obviously isn't a scientific survey. Doing the speed test at different times will lead to different results, and accessing the internet over wireless, or on a computer that is slow or has a badly set up firewall/antivirus can also affect the result. Nevertheless, the results are interesting, and broadly similar to findings .
Mark notes in the comments that it:
Seems from the data that you've already gathered that most people with up to 2Mb are getting roughly what they're promised.
If we're Fraudband Britain, the Fraud's being directed at people paying for the highest connection speed. Interesting business strategy - disappoint your highest revenue customers...
The final figures confirm Mark's suspicions - check out below the statistics for people paying for 8mbps compared to lower speed connections:
Advertised maximum speed: 1mbps
Attained (mean speed): 743.9179 kbps - 73% of maximum
Advertised maximum speed: 2mbps
Attained (mean speed): 1356.515 kbps - 66% of maximum
Advertised maximum speed: 4mbps
Attained (mean speed): 2666.743 kbps - 65% of maximum
Advertised maximum speed: 8mbps
Attained (mean speed): 2503.22 kbps - 31% of maximum
Advertised maximum speed: 10-24mbps
Attained (mean speed): 5830.826 kbps
Average speed of all respondents: 2205.077kbps
We've just spoken to Competitiveness Minister Stephen Timms and to the Internet Service Providers Association, and are hoping to speak to Ofcom tomorrow. Is there anyone else we should approach to talk about this issue?
UPDATE: Ofcom have just announced that they could take formal action over the speed issue. Ben Wallis from their Consumer Panel has written a blog post for us on the reason's for Ofcom's actions and is inviting feedback in the comments.
is the blog of Shaun Attwood.
He is a British man who spent time in one of America's most notorious jails, and has returned home, after chronicling his life behind bars.
Shaun Atwood was on remand in Arizona for drugs offences in a jail run by the man known as "America's Toughest Sheriff". Joe Arpaio believes in running tough jails. Inmates are served surplus food. They must wear pink underwear. He is popular with the local electorate but not with civil liberties campaigners, who say conditions in his jails are unacceptable. You can read Shaun's view of his experience on his blog.
After more than two years on remand under one of regimes, Shaun Atwood accepted a plea bargain and served his sentence in greater comfort. This week he's finally come home to see his parents Derrick and Barbara who posted his prison letters on a blog.
They spoke to me this morning for about half an hour. You can hear part of the interview on PM. Here it is in full. { Click on the Channel Guide for the edited broadcast version }
Tomorrow on iPM we will finally launch our map showing where PM listeners are when they're listening.
Although we'll reveal it tomorrow after 17.30, we will update it regularly so don't worry if you haven't sent your postcode yet - you've still got a week in which to do so. We'll stop accepting postcodes on Friday 21st December.
You can email your postvode to ipm@bbc.co.uk or send it to iPM, Room G601, 麻豆社 TV Centre, London W12 7RJ. Please don't send it anywhere else...because if you do we won't be able to use it...sorry!
So you still have a week. I spoke to someone last night who WAS going to send it by mail but thought that tomorrow was our deadline. It isn't. So if you know a non-computer person who listens to PM...let them know they still have time.
Next Saturday, the 22nd, will be the last in our scheduled run on Radio 4...but the content will continue on this Blog. You see? There is NO escape...
So tune in tomorrow night at 17.30 for details of where to find the map...and if that's a bad time, don't worry the programme is available as a podcast. Just go to itunes and enter iPM, or go through the Radio 4 website...or easier still...click on the Podcast link on the right of this page.
Say what you like about John, now Lord Birt - and believe me, some people in the 麻豆社 don't hold back when it comes to the former Director-General - but there's a consensus that the one major positive achievement of his time in charge is the very thing you're looking at now.
No, he can't claim any direct credit for the iPM blog, but he can look back with pride at his involvement in the early days of the 麻豆社 on the internet.
As 麻豆社.co.uk celebrates its 10th birthday this Saturday, Lord Birt has been telling iPM about the birth of the service:
To celebrate bbc.co.uk's 10th anniversary, the beta version of the new website has been officially launched.
The 麻豆社 says: The redesign marks the first stage of the roll out of new features aimed at delivering a reinvented bbc.co.uk as part of plans to improve access to 麻豆社 online content. The new page is made up of customisable and moveable widgets that allow users to determine the layout of the page and give them a greater level of control over what information they want to see.
As well as the tailoring the page to their own requirements users can, for the first time, listen live to 麻豆社 radio directly from the homepage and browse the evening鈥檚 麻豆社 tv schedules.
Tony Ageh, controller, internet, said: 鈥楾hese exciting developments mark an important stage in the work the 麻豆社 is doing to aggregate content more effectively and give users more control over how they experience bbc.co.uk. Enabling users to organise components of the homepage around the subjects that are most important to them increases its value and relevance, while still remaining a powerful expression of the 麻豆社 on the internet.鈥
Have a go yourself by clicking on the image below:
Our thanks to Alex Willmer who has drawn our attention to another post code driven project. He says
While you are submitting your postcode to iPM, please add your postcode to and see how your home town looked in the 1940s. It has detailed, out of copyright maps from the 1940s. They aren't collecting any personal details - no names, no house numbers - just postcodes.
I couldn't resist. We'd very much like to hear from anyone else who might be involved in a similar project. So far we have received in excess of 13,000 postcodes. And as the excitement builds, so too does the map making. More soon.
Thank you, if you've gone to the trouble. Remember we want to build a map of where in the world people are listening to PM. We're especially grateful to a listener in China who emailed this morning...and there are lots of other listeners in locations across the planet. How exotic.
From China, Sam wrote: "Love you programme. I listen every day - one day late, of course, because I am in China. Would love to contribute to the programme by telling you about China. My postcode is ... but may be this is not much good in England."
We wrote back to Sam with the same sort of advice we'd give you if you're living abroad, or if you're travelling when PM is on. Give us as much detail about your location as we can. Sam wrote back with his full address and we will put him on our map!
If you haven't done so, please email the postcode of the place you usually listen to PM to: ipm@bbc.co.uk - and put POSTCODE in the subject line. Or send it by post to: iPM, Room G601, 麻豆社 News Centre, London W12 7RJ.
As I write George and co are audibly busy sorting out the map that we'll post on THIS Blog on Saturday, when iPM is on the air. In PM last night, Chris - Mr Blog - pointed you towards several handy mashups: Try , and this!
More to come, and remember Saturday is not a deadline...so if you know someone who's a Radio 4 listener who's not online but they might want to be on the map...pass on the iPM postal address to them. Here is a small selection of the letters and postcards we've already received...
On this Saturday's iPM, we'll be marking the 10th anniversary of www.bbc.co.uk with some of the main players who were in at the start. Among the people who'll be reminiscing about those heady early days will be in the history of the 麻豆社's online service.
But the past is the past - here's a sneak preview of the future:
It's the latest version of the 麻豆社's home page. We've already posted some of the various designs of bbc.co.uk over the years, but this version has not even been officially released.
It's in what is known as its phase, where it's available online - but you have to know it's there. Think of it as a working prototype. The idea of a beta version of a website is that it can be tested by many different people who'll point out any gremlins that can then be ironed out before the full release.
Thanks to all who repsonded to our earlier post about Fraudband Britain. And guess what? If you bury deep into latest , on page 158, it says:
The biggest gap between claimed headline speeds and perceived actual speeds was in the UK
The report also says:
Because of the reduction in speeds caused by degradation over distance and contention, headline broadband speeds are not always a useful metric for understanding the actual consumer experience.
Two early thoughts. Why are broadband providers able to sell something that they're seemingly unable to deliver? And why is the gap here in the UK between the headline and the actual speed so big? This chart from the Ofcom report is also interesting. Leaving aside the above, there are only . The figures for Japan are enough to make your eyes water.
(Had to shrink to fit on blog - on pg 158 of the Ofcom report)
As we speak the calls are going into the , and If you haven't done so already, you can find out how to test the speed of your broadband here.
This week, on our sister programme PM we're launching a brand new experiment.
All you need to know is the postcode you're in when you listen to PM. If you're travelling when we're on the air, we'll happily accept your best guess as to your postcode, or the rough location. If you're overseas, try the local postcode or zipcode.
Then just email your postcode to this address: ipm@bbc.co.uk Please put POSTCODE in the subject line.
Don't worry if you don't have email. You can pop it in the post too. Just send a letter or postcard with the postcode you're in when you listen to PM, to this address: iPM, Room G601, 麻豆社 News Centre, London W12 7RJ.
In PM tonight, Chris - Mr Blog - pointed you towards several handy mashups: Try , and this!
Saturday December 15th marks a significant anniversary.
It's the date that the was issued in 1994, and the date that the was first released in 1965 - but for the purposes of iPM, it's also the date back in 1997 that 麻豆社 online started its full service.
So when this Saturday's iPM goes to air, bbc.co.uk will be 10 years old, and we'll be marking the occasion.
Some of the developers will be telling us about the traumatic start of the service - technical problems, concerns over management, worries over content.
And we may even ask what you'll be able to do on bbc.co.uk ten years from now.
Here's how the home page looked in the very early days:
This is another example of bbc.co.uk from that time:
By March 1998, it looked like this:
And by February 2002, this was the home page:
Welcome to iPM, favourite blog. This is where the programme starts to take shape. Thank you to the thousands who have posted or sent us an email about your postcode or the speed of your broadband connection. Some have done both and your contributions are what we are all about. Chris Vallance will be on tonight's PM to explain a little more about what we plan to do with all this info. Otherwise, it is the start of the week and the page is blank. If there's a story or a particular issue that you'd like to hear on the programme - post away. Failing that you can always send us an email - ipm {@} bbc.co.uk. I'll update this later with a few ideas of our own.
Some early thoughts:
Chris: From Uganda, who are working in part of the country that's struggling to cope with the virus. If possible, I'd like to hear more from them.
Back home and to quote "I never comment on referees and I'm not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat." Now, the fights back. Seen but mostly unheard, I've been looking at the . Well, it beats the usual .
Marc: Get the candles out, this Saturday it'll a 'Happy 10th birthday' to www.bbc.co.uk - it began on 15 December 1997 . We plan to mark the occasion. was in charge at the time, if you've got a question for the former DG, let us know.
George: Following from our earlier post about sex and the internet - it has that one of the big porn producers is suing Youtube-alike Pornotube (Not suitable for work) for piracy - believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind in the adult industry.
And do websurfers care enough about privacy to abandon Google? is betting they do, and is launching , a new search service that .
Thanks for your suggestions too. If you've thoughts about these or other stories you'd like us to cover, leave a comment or email iPM.
View our list of del.icio.us links to see other websites catching our attention:
This week, on our sister programme PM we're launching a brand new experiment.
All you need to know is the postcode you're in when you listen to PM. If you're travelling when we're on the air, we'll happily accept your best guess as to your postcode, or the rough location. If you're overseas, try the local postcode or zipcode.
Then just email your postcode to this address: ipm@bbc.co.uk Please put POSTCODE in the subject line.
Don't worry if you don't have email. You can pop it in the post too. Just send a letter or postcard with the postcode you're in when you listen to PM, to this address: iPM, Room G601, 麻豆社 News Centre, London W12 7RJ.
You're probably wondering what we're going to do with this information. Well, on iPM on Saturday we're going to start to build a map showing where people are listening to PM.
YOU'LL be able to see whether you're the only PM listener in the neighbourhood. As if.
I've already emailed iPM@bbc.co.uk put POSTCODE in the subject line and added W12 7RJ. So come on - where are YOU listening to PM?
(Please don't add your postcode on the comment link - send us an email)
Do you get the internet speed you signed up for?
The government has been pushing BT recently to spend billions on a speedier broadband infrastructure. The competitiveness minister, Stephen Timms, has said a faster internet is .
Yet many people complain of with their broadband service. So how fast is your internet connection, and does it live up to the claims of your provider?
Taking part is as simple as following a link to a website that will measure your internet speed and posting the following pieces of information as a comment to this post (or emailing them to us at ipm (at) bbc.co.uk).
1. Determine the speed of your internet connection by clicking . Start the test and make a note of your speed in kbps. It's circled in red on the example here.
2. If you know the advertised speed of the internet service you pay for, let us know. Otherwise, continue to...
3. Your postcode or the name of your city or town.
UPDATE I see that some of you have rightly noted that declines with distance from the exchange. You might be in interested in this site which .
UPDATE:Results are here.
The stories and interviewees covered in Saturday's programme
Mobile phones in prisons
The ease with which prisoners are accessing mobiles in Britain's jails - the background to this story is covered in a blog post from Chris.
Facebook
Was Facebook just a fad? iPM brings together a successful Facebook campaigner and technology blogger, , who thinks Facebook's time is up.
Cyberattacks and hackers
After last weeks by the MI5 Director-General that the UK is a target for Chinese and Russian cyber-attackers, we looked at the UK's preparedness, amid that our reporting system is broken.
Mr Blog
Mentioned our Fraudband Britain project - how fast's your broadband connection?
My Favourites
Listen again to US actress, UNICEF Ambassador and blogger Mia Farrow's recommended websites.
Hoax websites
How do we know if we can trust a website we're looking at? Eddie spoke to one of the , Andy Bichlbaum, and online spoof spotter .
The story was sparked off from a comment by listener and blogger Dan Bennett.
Latest 
This is how it looked earlier in the week
She's appeared in over forty films, has armfuls of awards and several famous ex-husbands including and .
She continues to be an outspoken critic of the Sudanese government and visited London recently to for survivors of the fighting in Sudan's Darfur region.
iPM asked about her favourite websites:
Mia Farrow recommends:
Inspired by this post on the we'll be looking at the issue of mobile phones in prisons. Prisoners aren't allowed phones in jail for good reason: mobiles have been used to deal drugs, continue to run criminal activities, and plot escapes.
As the Spy Blog reports, the figures for the number of phones taken from prisoners in the last 12 months, were released (the same day as ).They show phone seizures at a pretty constant level of around 2-400 a month since Oct 2006 (3473 phones and sims in total up to the end of Sept 07). Add to that a report which spoke of an "apparently limitless" supply of mobile phones in , and while there have been recent attempts to bring technology to bear on the issue, clearly there is a continuing problem.
There are technical aspects to this too: we know it's possible to jam phones, we know it's possible to track phones and to detect cell phone transmissions, so why is it difficult to stop prisoners using them in jails? We'll try to find some of the answers Saturday.
UPDATE: We spoke to David Jamieson of Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board and Brian Caton General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association. I also recorded an interview with a former prison governor who gave his reaction to the report and the general issue of mobile phones in prison, which purely because of time constraints didn't make it to air. Long versions of those interviews are available in the player below:
Is Facebook about to ? It has been a bad few days for the business. The has had to for introducing a scheme that many users felt about them. Elsewhere, more firms are and the that some users ( and there are sixty miilion of them ) are putting up way too much private information about them on their profiles. Still, this week saw the launch of and only a few days ago the in the business. For some then, the future looks good. For others, that's on its way out.
Or has the commentariat jumped to a hasty conclusion? Come on, even if you haven't signed up - don't pretend you haven't been tempted.
Personally, I love the fact that the on Facebook has 31 members. That's about to rise to 32.
And here's a long version of Eddie's discussion with Facebook campaigner and Facebook doubter . Johnny first:
Here's how the programme is shaping up as of Thursday morning. It could well change before we go to air on Saturday afternoon - and with your help, it can.
(with apologies to the Bard for that appalling headline)
Bise is french for "kiss" - and the question that confounds many a frenchman or woman is just how many to give when meeting someone. Too many, and you can appear over-eager; too few, and you might seem offhand.
But an answer could soon be at hand - thanks to a website I was alerted to via one of my favourite quirky blogs, .
StrangeMaps does it exactly what it says on the tin, rounding up weird and wonderful maps, old and new, informative and spurious, from around the world.
Recently it featured a map showing just how many bises people give depending on where they live in France. You can explore it by clicking on the image below.
We should be speaking to the man behind the map on PM on Wednesday.
Here's a selection of some of the best from StrangeMaps:
A map showing the proportion of Europeans with blond hair
If Britain had become part of the USA:
A map showing from which countries you will be able to see a total eclipse of the Sun until 2025:
There are plenty more at - and as ever, we'd love to know the blogs and websites you enjoy reading.
If you are a new visitor to iPM - welcome. This is where the programme starts to take shape. Your suggestions are key to what iPM is all about. If there's a story or a particular issue that you'd like to hear on the programme - post away. Failing that you can always send us an email - ipm {@} bbc.co.uk.
Some early thoughts:
Rupert: Am I really the only one interested in sex on the net? Could it be that for the first time - - i.e. the wallet. So, why pay for porn?
Marc: We've mentioned in a number of recent entries that we're looking to do our own experiment in the near future. Watch this space, and listen to PM and iPM, for more details shortly.
In the meantime, here's a - answering that vexed question of how many times French people kiss each other on the cheeks when they meet. Mwah, mwah - ma cherie.
Is your local book-store doomed? The Booksellers' Association is warning that unless bricks-and-mortar book shops embrace the internet they could be . We could take a look at innovative online book sites such as or . Where else could we try?
George: Tempted by the that's going on down at the
We could use your help for an item we're thinking about, related to authenticity and fake websites. Prompted by story about a spoof website set up in the name of a climate change coalition, that reminded us of earlier web-based pranksters like the . There remains a real question of authenticity online, whether it's or Flogs ('fake blogs' set up by PR companies). What sites do you trust? What about those you don't? How much online can you believe?
And the . We had hoped to speak to renowned writer and guess what - we have. More soon.
Jenny: I like this: . It's been set up by an American college to 'rediscover the voices of real people' that they feel are missing from the media's coverage of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And have you heard of ? It's an American news gathering experiment where reporters use internet tools - like social networking websites - to help them cover stories. Is this something we could do in the UK?
Thanks for your suggestions too. If you've thoughts about these or other stories you'd like us to cover, leave a comment or email iPM.
View our list of del.icio.us links to see other websites catching our attention:
We took a look earlier at the strike action by the Writers Guild of America, which today enters its .
Television shows have been suspended and movies cancelled or postponed, while last week's negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP, which represents producers, appear to have .
Earlier in the week Eddie Mair spoke to Ken Levine, the legendary writer whose credits include Cheers, MASH, Frasier and the Simpsons. He talked firstly about his experience of walking the picket lines:
Other than googling for "Ken Levine blog", you can also read his website by looking .
Hello.
We're very excited about iPM, and thank you for having a look at our Blog. As you may know if you've tried to post a comment on our pages, we've been plagued with something covered by the all-encompassing phrase "technical problems".
I've just written on the PM blog about a glimmer of hope. We'll keep you posted...and in the meantime, please rummage around all the many bits and links on this page that DO work...I think you'll find the work of Mr Blog et al is a very valuable resource.
We mentioned the virtual . Arden uses the game to create a world based on Richard III Researchers plan to use Arden as a virtual petri dish, enabling them to conduct social, economic and anthropological experiments that would be impossible and/or unethical in the real world.
The short piece we broadcast was based on a much longer interview with - you can hear that interview below:
The end of the item we broadcast on iPM about featured the physics of a phenomenon known as the , where an object spins and curves in the air.
If you click , you can see it in action, while explains what's going on and how to do it yourself.
Eddie Mair spoke to Professor Michael Reiss about Planet Sci-Cast's efforts to popularise science on the internet.
Here's a full length version of the interview:
So that's iPM done for another week - acta est fabula, plaudite! (see below for an explanation)
Here's what we covered on today's programme, with links so you can learn more.
Cyber attacks from abroad
After the UK government openly accused China of carrying out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of Britain鈥檚 economy, we heard from who co-wrote a for the computer security company McAfee about cybercrime.
iPM also spoke to , who runs the world's only school for hackers - the in Moscow.
Crime-Fighting Technology
We heard from DCI Mick Neville from the about new technology which could be used to identify CCTV images of suspects based on what they wear. David McIntosh works for which the Met is considering using.
Mr Blog
Chris Vallance took us to , a virtual world based on Shakespeare's Richard III
Science teaching on-line
This was sparked by a suggestion from Sharon Colpman, which put us on to - we spoke to the website's founder, Jonathan Sanderson. Giving his response to their efforts to engage youngsters in science was , Director of Education at the Royal Society and Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education.
My Favourites
The voice of the Saturday afternoon football results, James Alexander Gordon, guided us through his favourite websites.
He chose:
The stories that didn't make it
We considered doing a feature to mark - but we couldn't quite find the iPM angle. There's elsewhere though.
We looked into the notion of whether new media could revive Latin, sparked by - but as we covered science on the internet, we couldn't really do languages in the same programme. By the way, "acta est fabula, plaudite" means "the play is over, applaud!"
Your comments are always welcome - as are suggestions about what we could put on air for a future iPM. Click on "comments" below or send an email to ipm {at} bbc.co. uk
Every week on iPM we ask someone to guide us through their internet favourites. They're the handful of websites or blogs they'd read every day, even if they were stranded on a desert island with nothing but a solar-powered laptop.
iPM was pleased to welcome this week a man who you probably wouldn't know if you saw him - but you'd recognise him immediately once he started speaking.
has been reading the football results on 麻豆社 Radio since the early 1970s.
You can hear his choices, as well as the reasons behind them, here:
James Alexander Gordon chose:
麻豆社 Radio Berkshire
It's Saturday, here is the latest running order:
This is how it looked at the start of the week:
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