I keep seeing the new BBC advert showcasing new high definition services in what can only be described as explosive adverts on their channels.

The ads have obviously had a huge amount of cash spent on them - involving large sets being destroyed.

The 'theme' is the Antiques Roadshow being involved in some kind of cataclysmic car crash, with what is presumably a priceless vase being saved by TV news lovely Helen Bruce in Hong Kong action movie style.

Clearly they're taking a recognised BBC signature 'brand' such as the Antiques Roadshow and reimagining it in an exciting 'high definition' way. showing how 'Auntie' is moving with the times.

But why? Who really cares about high def except TV tekkies, and journos who have been set up by Sky TV for free in exchange for numerous plugs (you know who you are).

Is it an improvement? Yes - but it's not like the leap forward from video cassettes to DVD.

Also why is a public service broadcaster effectively running ads aimed at selling expensive TVs to people who already have something which will do the job just as well?

There is also the point that if the same production values and budgets were available to, say, a new science fiction series, we might actually have something worth watching, other than repeats of Dad's Army.

After all the BBC has been cutting jobs left right and centre - often in drama - so those concerned must be delighted at such a large amount of cash being spent on ads like this.

I keep seeing the new BBC advert showcasing new high definition services in what can only be described as explosive adverts on their channels.

The ads have obviously had a huge amount of cash spent on them - involving large sets being destroyed.

The 'theme' is the Antiques Roadshow being involved in some kind of cataclysmic car crash, with what is presumably a priceless vase being saved by TV news lovely Helen Bruce in Hong Kong action movie style.

Clearly they're taking a recognised BBC signature 'brand' such as the Antiques Roadshow and reimagining it in an exciting 'high definition' way. showing how 'Auntie' is moving with the times.

But why? Who really cares about high def except TV tekkies, and journos who have been set up by Sky TV for free in exchange for numerous plugs (you know who you are).

Is it an improvement? Yes - but it's not like the leap forward from video cassettes to DVD.

Also why is a public service broadcaster effectively running ads aimed at selling expensive TVs to people who already have something which will do the job just as well?

There is also the point that if the same production values and budgets were available to, say, a new science fiction series, we might actually have something worth watching, other than repeats of Dad's Army.

After all the BBC has been cuitting jobs left right and centre - often in drama - so those concerned must be delighted at such a large amount of cash being spent on ads like this.

I see that a team of British scientists have somehow managed to scoop a one million euro grant to create a robot which can stir soup.

I must confess I had thought that technology had come a bit further than this.

After all haven't we created robot planes to fly over enemy lines spotting Osama Bin Laden? (ok, ok, bad example)

In the story linked to above it says the robot must understand that the goal is to create soup.

If we're getting into the understanding by artificial intelligence of philosophical questions of that magnitude, where will it all stop?

Will we have kitchen droids contemplating the endless conundrum: "If the universe is infinite and god is also infinite.....would you like some oxtail, sir?"

I await the next huge European project - "Can we create artificial intelligence capable of putting the correct amount of sugar in tea?"

And to think we're worried about the Chinese technology boom taking industry away from the EU - with projects like that I'm sure our supremacy is assured.

Big developers Bioware and EA have backed down after a huge online outcry over plans to dramatically ramp up their copywrite protection on two new releases.

Both Mass Effect and Spore were set to use SecuROM's software which forces the user to authenticate their copy of the game every ten days online.

The plans had caused something of a sensation on the internet, with fans complaining it was a step too far.

First Bioware decided to drop the plans in favour of the normal authenticate on installation, then EA followed suit.

The spectacular reverse ferret left both publishers with egg on their faces - but were they really in the wrong?

There's no doubt that software piracy is a big problem on the PC - more so than other platforms. Games these days have development periods running to years and cost millions of pounds to create.

Is it really so unreasonable for companies to protect their intellectual property?

I think on balance this one probably went a bit far - and ran the risk of the consumer being treated like a criminal - something which seems to be happening more and more.

I, for one, find it quite annoying when a program tells me on installation "your authentication code 'appears' to be correct". APPEARS!!! Thanks guys, after I've lashed out on your new product.

Plus with the SecuROM system there's the issue of needing to be online to authenticate - many people have a computer for games which they don't use for the internet for performance reasons.

Also, what happens if you decide you fancy a game two years after release? Will the authentication servers still be working?

And there's the issue of servers being overwhelmed, leading to waits to get on an play.

All in all I don't think it was a good idea - but let's face it - we're only going to get more and more of this kind of thing as developers perfectly reasonably try to beat the pirates.

The Observer carried out an interesting experiment by getting some of their arts critics to take a look at the ultra-violent and crass GTA IV on Sunday.

Needless to say the result was enough flowery and eliteist language to keep Private Eye's Pseuds Corner in business for months.

Peter Conrad, described as a 'writer and academic' who doesn't actually drive himself, began by comparing the constant movement to cinema: "The plot is an excuse for motion: cinema is kinesis.

"Hitchcock knew he was programming sensations, infecting audiences with motion sickness as his characters struggle to control runaway cars."

Clearly warming to his subject, Conrad compares the legendary GTA freeform gameplay to chaos theory: "I began as a fluttering butterfly an hour ago, and the result of my impromptu thumb-twiddling was this thunderstorm of concertinaed metal and squirting gore."

Finally Conrad asks the question on all gamers' lips: "Is this a game, or a holy war conducted by other means?"

Art critic Laura Cumming makes a bold attempt to match her field of expertise to the grime of Liberty City: "Then you notice the way that a couple of nighthawks in a diner appear to be re-enacting the famour Edward Hopper painting; or that the struts of Brooklyn Bridge, through mist, resemble an Alfred Stieglitz photograph."

I don't remember those comparisons in the Official XBox 360 magazine review!

She shows she has managed to master the difficult art of flying though - very impressive! "Swoop through its dark canyons by helicopter, watch the brownstones blaze red in the heat, witness the lights coming on like fireflies at dusk."

All tongue in cheek I suppose, but quite enjoyable - and at least it means games getting a decent amount of coverage.

Now we just need one of these luvvies to go on a game-inspired murder spree so it will get coverage in the Daily Mail too!

SO the latest 'next big thing' has arrived - and already Grand Theft Auto IV is making the news.

The BBC reports that it has already smashed through all sales records.

Not only has it beaten any previous video game with UK sales of £24 million on the day of release, but it's already been critically acclaimed with huge review scores.

I've been off work this week - but hopefully on my return a review copy will be waiting!

Mind you, there have also been many reports of faults - suggesting Rockstar might not have tested things propertly before going to release.

Some PS3 owners haven't been able to install it on their hard drives, with others revealing crashing problems on the same system.

It's not confined to the PS3 either - on the XBox 360 a 'faulty batch of disks' (according to Rockstar) mean that it freezes every time you leave the base apartment.

The slightly ironic thing is that now that consoles can connect to the internet, they're getting the same half-finished releases that PC gamers have been putting up with for years - after all why test something properly when you can get it in the shops asap and then cure the many bugs with a host of 'patches'?

One more thing - games are still somewhat ghettoised. Compare the sales of GTA IV to many cinema releases.

The simple fact is that games are bigger business than films these days. But if you look at the coverage in newspapers you would still think it was the other way around.

My own games review column in Saturday's Birmingham Mail is dwarfed by the film coverage.

But consider this - in the link it shows that top UK opening WEEKENDS(not days) for films as of 2001 was Harry Potter £16.3 million, Fellowship of the Ring £11 million, and The Phantom Menace £9.5 million. For a more recent update Spider-Man 3 took £11.5 million on its opening weekend.

GTA IV's £24 million puts it all in perspective - and shows how what used to be a genre for nerds and children is now for the mass market.

Well if nothing else, the above headline should please those giving out advice on search engine optimisation (as the below will show).

I've just come out of a lecture from Anton Grutzmacher, head of client services, from Hitwise, a web information and usage company.

There was loads of really interesting stuff about the regional media and how they are doing in terms of website traffic.

But there was one stunning statistic which I had never seen before in 'official' terms.

We all know that online porn, also known as 'bongo' and 'grumble' is somewhat popular. But in terms of actual cast iron information I didn't know how much.

After all, the popular searches through engines like google and yahoo are ranked - but 'purient content removed' is the rider.

So we know that people are searching for Britney Spears or Pamela Anderson and loads of other stuff like ipods, but are they really in the top ten?

Well hitwise can put it in perspective - they monitor the usage of more than eight million surfers using information from internet service providers.

And the results are that 'adult' content is as popular as all the internet search engines put together.

So for everyone logging on to google or whatever as their homepage or as a search tool, there's someone shiftily finding something rather more grubby.

As to how this fits in to the debate over the future of local journalism, I'm not sure - but perhaps executives might be tempted into taking more drastic action in terms of the online content they provide!

It would be fair to say that anyone technically unaware, looking for a new graphics card capable of playing the latest games at the moment would be somewhat confused.

The situation has not really been helped by nvidia's naming policy - the 8800 series has had so many revisions that anyone could be forgiven for wondering what's going on.

For your reference the cards in order of speed (including AMD's top cards) go 8800gs 384, 3850, 8800gt 256, 8800gts 320, 8800gts 640, 3870 512, 9600gt, 8800GT 512, 8800gts 512, 8800 GTX, 9800 GTX, 3870 X2, 9800 GX2.

Confusing eh? Especially as Nvidia reused the GTS tag for newer cards. So which card would I buy? Clearly budget is an issue and it depends on what your system is, as there's no point in pairing a £400 9800gx2 with a ageing cpu as the graphics card will be hopelessly bottlenecked.

The recent king of the middle market has been nvidia's 8800gt 512 - released as a spoiler for the 3870 from AMD it actually spoiled it's own 8800GTS 512 which was released shortly afterwards. Who would want to spend £210 on the GTS when the £150 GT did the job nearly as well?

Since then the 9600gt has come out as well, and is only marginally slower than the 8800GT.

The graphics card market is saturated with minor revisions, slightly overclocked versions of the same cards and so on, but I think that I'd still go for the 8800GT 512 - if you can find it for around the £115 mark!

I recently started having some BSODs (Blue Screen of Death), always while surfing the internet.

In fact, to start with the screen just went black and the whole thing locked up. I since discovered that the BSOD feature was in fact turned off - so it would just crash and freeze or simply reboot without telling me why.

So after turning it back on I discovered it was down to Stop 0x000000F4 - as usual Iresorted to the internet but sadly it was unable to say with any certainty what the problem was.

Then I remembered that I'd told spybot to block a few programs from inserting themselves in the start menu, and in a fit of impatience I had just clicked to block, rather than checking out what they were first.

That proved to be the culprit and since then, touch wood, it's been running fine.

Just goes to prove it's unwise to turn something off, or ban something without checking properly what they actually do.

ACCORDING to reports fraud on the internet is a much bigger problem than previously thought.

Bank industry figures published earlier this year show "card not present" losses for internet, phone and mail order crime were £290.5 million last year.

But a BBC News investigation found that £500 million of fraud took place when failed attempts were taken into account.

Often the fraudsters are able to hack into the websites of smaller online retailers, and get card details direct when someone pays.

It certainly doesn't necessarily make you feel all that secure when buying online - but I don't feel necessarily put off - after all the internet provides a great tool for shopping, allowing instant comparisons and many bargains.

Thankfully I haven't, as yet, had any problems, but I reckon there are a few rules which at least make it less likely to happen.

I generally only buy from the bigger, more established companies. Also check if they have a contact phone number - it's normally a good sign if they do.

Home computer security need not be that expensive or daunting - although it's best to have an overlapping system.

I have a number of anti-virus and spyware programs running - all of them free. You don't have to pay out - for example the AVG free edition is almost identical to the paid-for version. I also use ad-aware and spybot.

So there you have it - don't necessarily be too afraid - it might happen, but if you take precautions it will lessen the likelihood.

If anyone has any tips or experiences, feel free to post a comment.