A few tweaks have been going on behind the scenes here at nik.co.uk to make things run a little faster. All seems to be working fine still, so I guess it was successful.

The most immediate difference is the loss of the ‘related entries’ section at the end of each post. Compiling these by trawling through an SQL database of over 1100 records each time a new post is made was slowing everything down. Hopefully this should mean posting comments is not so painfully tedious as it used to be.

Less evident is a web cam running in the background and updating every ten minutes. Assuming all goes well, I’ll probably sneak it into the interface somewhere discrete, although at the moment it’s showing nothing more exciting than the Chelmsford weather.

Finally, a brand new toy for anyone running iChat or AOL Instant Messenger. Add the screen name notreallynik to your Buddy list and have a chat. It’s a snazzy bit of AI running on an antiquated machine under a desk at home, but it seems to work well enough. Only trouble is, as it’ll learn more the longer it runs, it’s not the brightest spark just now.

Test him out and let me know what you think (all sessions are logged).

1. Bounce-back SMS
   Now here's a snazzy thing. Got your mobile handy? Good. Now try texting 'nik web' (without the quote marks) to 83248 and a server at...
   
   
2. New blogs
   Ooh, look - two new MacUser people blogs (here and here), both using the excellent Mindsay, which allows you to post using iChat. I wish...
   
   
3. Jingle Russian Roulette
   It's very exciting having new music and jingles. Half of them say 'Nik Rawlinson and Gordon Laing' and the other half say 'Gordon Laing and...