The site suffered a little unexpected downtime last night so apologies if you were left adrift in an inconceivable deluge of boredom and thanks to Luke for pointing it out. However, it taught me an interesting truth about server support. Hosting the Ball site with NetPivotal we would have regular trouble with the database but problems were always sorted out very speedily after entering a support ticket. With ICDSoft I so rarely have any trouble that when it came to an event I couldn’t deal with myself, I couldn’t actually remember my support username in order to raise a query. The moral of this story seems to be that bad service makes fixing problems easier…

I have always recommended Copernic Desktop Search as leader of the pack in terms of desktop search programs which index the files on your computer in a similar manner to a search engine and can therefore provide virtually instantaneous results rather than the half hour trial, the endurance of which we came to expect as normal. It was one of the first to provide full support for Mozilla applications and great care has gone into crafting its interface. Although the latest “upgrade” only consisted of some useless IE toolbar changes, it also alerted me to the fact that a beta has been released for v2.0 of the product. A stable release, it features a more minimalist interface that allows for speedier navigation to the results you seek as well as the capability to suggest alternatives and correct search terms based on its index of your machine. Well worth the tiny download.

With the resurgence in remakes of classic horror films, it was perhaps inevitable that someone would stumble across a dusty videotape of The Omen and come up with the bright idea of reproducing it for modern audiences. However I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle eeriness of the teaser trailer as the camera pans around Damien sat on a creaky swing. The boy’s dead gaze is perfect. The recently released full trailer similarly creates the right moody ambience until towards the end. Guns with laser-sights and big explosions made me realise exactly why this sort of thing is a bad idea, even if it’s in the hands of a capable director who understands how to evoke the right mood through visual style.