What's your reasoning behind that? I would have thought that the first touch he has and clever passes he can supply make him pretty well suited to the job. Certainly better than...

Heheh. I'm getting my CP's and MI's crossed. Actually, I'm not qualified to comment since my 360 is hooked up via composite. It gives Ghost Recon the authentic 'fog of war' look.

Money, I've heard. HDMI isn't a cheap thing to license.

How unfortunate. Dribil's legs are about as sturdy as lolly sticks. After seeing that picture, I'm amazed at how all the initial reports said 'suspected' broken leg - as if he might have just twisted something.

Ian Wright may well be a cretin whose BBC appearances - at taxpayers' expense - are justified solely by his status as the only black player ever to gain popular approval among terrace thugs. But he's no less competent than most of the dull fools you'll hear commentating on other channels. I can hardly bring myself to watch football on the BBC or ITV any more, because of Shearer's monotone, Lawrenson's blind whining, David 'clueless' Pleat's inability to pronounce words of more than one syllable, Hansen's 10-year descent into self-parody, Lineker's punchable smugness... The way they all refer to England, or any English team, as 'we' is embarrassing. Most of them have no insight to offer. Why are they on TV? Footballers aren't famed for their communication skills. When I watch US sports, particularly the UFC, the commentary is funny, honest, informative and unfailingly accurate. Why can't we have the same in this country?

Isn't the general consensus that Shevchenko is nowhere near the player he was five or six years ago? I mean, he probably wouldn't add a great deal more to the team than Crespo currently does. Tevez: the new Djibril Cisse. Ballack: an off-the-pitch disruption waiting to happen. R Carlos: will sell a few shirts, but Real would be glad to get rid of him. I still don't think Chelsea will have anyone of the calibre of Rooney, Gerrard or Henry next season. (dredge up this thread when they've won the league next March...)

This is from Time magazine, apparently:

I think you're being a little generous to Mourinho in your preview, philipl. How can it be Ranieri's squad when Mourinho has spooged around £150m on it? His tactical acumen was nowhere to be seen in the FAC semi, when he dropped some of his most creative attacking players and stuck a defender in midfield - the kind of gamble that would have him hailed as a genius in the unlikely event it worked, or fired if he was in charge of one of the Spanish or Italian giants. His drawing of attention away from the players and club isn't something I see as a calculated strategy - he is simply so full of himself, he believes he's the one man responsible for Chelsea's dominance. Hence his comments about how he's just won four titles in a row. Steve Bruce gives the porn baron more credit than Mourinho gives Abramovich. Ungracious, unlikeable and undeserving. My prediction: we'll lose very heavily.

Once known as Revolution. Will be launched as Wii. Yes, it's pronounced how you think it is. I think it's quite nice, actually, but I'm not sure how other English people will react. Is this the only country where 'wee' is kiddy slang for urine? Taking the Wii

Most of the new modes in Tetris aren't very good, but for one-on-one wi-fi play, it's amazing. Four players is alright but you get these stupid Mario power-up items that make it way too random. Solo mode isn't as good as the original Tetris or the DX version. No user profiles, no high score table etc. But the two-player internet mode... I'm totally addicted.

Hey, if you ever get Tetris, post your Friend Code here and I'll give you an online thrashing. For future reference, mine is 319648 088442

PSP doesn't look quite so futuristic next to the DS Lite. DS games are better and cheaper. I know which one I'd go for if I hadn't already bought every handheld bar a Gizmondo.

Maybe I'll convince you. DS is my most played games machine at the moment. It's cheap, it's durable, it's practical for commuting (it doesn't take several minutes to load a game). There are plenty of very good games at the moment - Advance Wars, Wario Ware, Tetris (online!), Animal Crossing, Nintendogs - plus some promising things in development, like Mario Bros and Zelda. Basically, it has the widest choice of software right now, and a lot of it is quite unusual because of the touch screen and microphone. Plays Game Boy Advance games, too. But... you probably shouldn't buy the standard one right now. The screens are quite poor, the buttons are rubbish and it looks like it doesn't belong outside of a playground. Wait until they release the DS Lite in Europe or buy one on import. It's so much nicer - the case and buttons are redesigned, the screens have a wider viewing angle and are brighter than a PSP (hurts my eyes on the brightest setting indoors)

Anyone see Pongo in the 'on the bench' section in today's Grauniad? One of many hilarious football comedy articles in said paper. Most memorable moment: Appearing suddenly on the pitch to celebrate second Rovers goal with Craig Bellamy. Shook clenched fist at crowd, realised he might actually look a bit silly, but showed decent turn of speed making himself scarce again.' God bless Harry Pearson.

Fantastic website! You have quite a talent for photography.

Well, that shouldn't happen. It's supposed to charge when you plug it in a powered USB port. I tried it with mine, and it charges when plugged in to the computer but drains like yours when it's plugged into an Xbox. Weird.

Bad news for UMD movie fans (both of you) Wal-Mart drops UMD format Looks like they'll have to start pushing it as a games machine rather than an all-in-one multimedia box.

I think you'll have to contact your nearest Apple store if you want to talk to somebody. Most problems I've had (except the frazzled iMac mobo) have been solved here: http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa Excellent resource.

Maybe you bought a dud battery. Although if two successive batteries are only lasting 20 minutes each, there could be something else wrong. I swapped mine when my original battery started dying in under 90 minutes - it's never been as bad as 20 mins. Given my experience of getting Apple products repaired in the past (£380 to get one poxy part replaced on a 1-month-past-warranty iMac) you'll probably find it cheaper to buy a complete new one rather than get the motherboard changed.

As far as I'm aware, the first console to ship with an analogue controller was the Atari 5200, in 1982. There were loads of 'TV game' systems that had analogue controllers in the 1970s, but for the most part they only played a few built-in games and so do not fit the modern definition of a console. Online - the NES, SNES and N64 all had online services but I'd class the Dreamcast as the first console with out-of-the-box online functionality. I'm a big fan of Nintendo, but they do seem to get credit for a lot of things they never invented.

They just released a bit more info: It plays games for any Nintendo console (NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube) plus its own titles. And Sega Mega Drive stuff too! And PC Engine / TurboGrafx. If they announce it also does Dreamcast games, I might have to log off and go clean myself up.

You were lucky. It's got moving parts and a laser lens and everything. At the Nintendo store in New York they've got an old Game Boy that was supposedly bombed in the first Gulf War. It looks like a toasted marshmallow but it's still going, playing the Tetris cartridge that was melted into the slot. That's what I want from a handheld - bulletproofabilityness.

The browser is a bit slow and the text entry (via a phone-style virtual keypad) is the clunkiest thing ever, but it's great for text pages. This site looks a bit of a mess (some sigs are wider than the PSP's screen) and you get an 'out of memory' error on a lot of the more complicated sites. I do like the updateable firmware feature - my PSP now does loads more stuff than it did when I got it. Less charitable people might say Sony released it before it was finished. Here's my mini review of the PSP, by me. Good things: - GTA makes a two-hour train journey seem like five minutes - It looks impressive - One day, somebody might make a great game for it that isn't a stripped-down PS2 conversion - Battery life much better than you'd imagine Bad things: - Play it for an hour, and you will never, ever remove the finger grease and scratches from the front - If you drop it, it's dead - The shiny, reflective screen is no good outdoors - And if you do ever whip it out in public, you might as well have 'MUG ME' tattooed on your face - Loading...please wait Verdict: - Too expensive for what it is, and packed with features that are either half-functional (internet) or not entirely practical (plug in some headphones and it becomes the world's heaviest, least durable MP3 player) 7 out of 10 Thankyou

The UMD format doesn't seem to have much of a future for movies, so you might as well buy the cheapest import you can find (unless you really want to pay £20 to watch American Pie on a tiny screen). It's doomed to go the way of pre-recorded Minidiscs. Gameswise, well, I only use mine for the internet at the moment - it's perfect for browsing Gamefaqs while I'm playing decent games on a proper console. GTA was amazing, for 30 hours or so, but there's not much else. I'll keep waiting for Vice City or something like that. In all, PSP is not the best purchase I ever made.

The force is strong in me.