Yeah, I’m a bit of a news junkie, but mainly from the BBC. That’s probably due to some untreated Anglophilia that I really should address. Anyhow, I put together a nifty little Perl CGI to make it easy for me to scan the latest news feeds from the BBC. Eventually, it’ll be able to load every single RSS feed that BBC makes available. Right now, it’s just the World News headline.

And the text, if you’re curious about the history

• Bitter Taylor says farewell to Liberia
  • President Taylor, who is due to step down on Monday, says goodbye to supporters as fighting in Liberia continues.
• Arnie joins official California race
  • Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is among dozens to file, as nominations close for California’s recall election.
• US church offer under consideration
  • Over 500 alleged victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests in the US consider an offer of $55m compensation.
• Former Saddam minister detained
  • The US military confirms that former Iraqi Interior Minister Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed has surrendered.
• Bombers ’trained with al-Qaeda’
  • Indonesia’s defence minister says he is sure Islamic militants bombed a US-owned hotel in Jakarta.
• No winners in Italian lottery
  • The draw in Italy’s biggest-ever lottery fails to yield a winning number, and the 66m-euro prize is again rolled over.
• Women protest at Afghan security
  • A thousand women gather in the Afghan capital to call for efforts to improve security across the country.
• Pilot held over air ‘joke’
  • An Air France pilot is arrested in New York after making an “inappropriate” remark during a security check.
• No relief for sweltering Europe
  • The extreme temperatures that have scorched Europe since late July are not expected to come down for another week.
• Football: Chelsea line up Mutu
  • Chelsea confirm they have agreed a fee with Parma for Romanian forward Adrian Mutu.
• Rugby: South Africa take comfort
  • South Africa take solace in defeat despite their 19-11 Tri-Nations loss to New Zealand.
• Rwanda opposition launches campaign
  • Faustin Twagiramungu, the main opposition candidate for Rwanda’s presidency, holds his first election rally.
• Nigeria shuts Benin border
  • The government blames cross-border crime for a closure which flies in the face of regional trade accords.
• Tunnel escape from Brazil jail
  • Over 80 inmates dig their way out of a maximum security prison in Brazil’s Paraiba state.
• Zapatistas party for the cause
  • Mexico’s Indian rebels hold a public party in their southern stronghold to relaunch their movement.

I got tired of having no pictures in the Image Gallery since the last site shuffle, so I finally decided to throw in a scan of a knotwork picture. That’s the biggest change to the site, although there is a new page of links to information about Raku . It will make it easier on me to keep that information in a single place, rather than rely on my memory.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Harry Potter book to read.

I’ve been working on 2003-06-12 Ruby Babysteps 01 - First Steps. It’s not going to make you a master. In its current form, it’s not really going to make you competent :-). Still, it should be enough to get you started with this powerful language. Since there are still not very many Ruby introductions available on the Web, I will probably get some followup chapters as soon as I can.

I also did a bit of a touchup on the site layout. Nothing exceptional, just some new colors and a different style of menu. I’m still figuring out WebMake’s sitemap functionality, so some of the page titles in the menu are a little messed up. Still, at least all the pages are there!