This really annoys me. When installing a new program, you get language options. The default is always something called "US English". Well, clearly that isn't me. So invariably I take the trouble to change the default to the only other English option: something called "International English".

International English? I'm not sure what that is. Nobody would ever describe themselves as an International English speaker - I certainly don't. The word 'international' is actually being used here as a euphemism for 'foreign'. US English is foreign to me, but I wouldn't be inconsiderate enough to make any US English-speakers describe themselves as foreign.

Perhaps we should just call International English 'English'. And make it the default. If anyone wants to specify a country they're welcome to do so, but if not, just leave it plain and unqualified.

I've used Copernic Desktop Search for years at home as my local search tool of choice. It's always done well, and has the killer feature that it will search network drives, so my little NAS under the desk, where most of my letters and family snapshots live, can also be indexed. Fantastic.

But then - along comes Copernic Desktop Search 3. A free downloadable update, and like a mug I just downloaded it.

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External link: http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/cds-compare.html

VRML, Virtual Reality Markup Language (or Virtual Reality Modelling Language, if you prefer), is a veritable format which enjoyed a brief period of popularity in the 1990s. Rather like video telephony, it turned out that just because something was technically possible, it didn't mean that people actually wanted to use it. But the format persists, although largely superseded by other, only slightly more popular formats.

Still, whilst dusting off my disco glitter flares I finally found a use for VRML, when I discovered Virtual Insects, a website last updated in 1999, featuring VRML insects, and a spider!

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External link: http://www.mediamachines.com/developer.php

Matthew and I are always taking photographs, particularly on a biodiversity theme, and have used these on several of our projects. See Wild on Wight for some of my close up photos of invertebrates and others.

Having our own photo library is great; there is usually a suitable image that we can use to illustrate our or our clients' work. However, sometimes we just do not have what we need. Take Pinkeye Graphics latest job for the Footprint Trust, for example. The brief was to design a series of postcards to publicise the Warmahome project. I had already designed a logo and poster to promote this worthy enterprise and the postcards were to be the jam.

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Does the term Internet Explorer 6 make you break into a sick, pale sweat? Or is it some old thing on your computer - in fact, hey, what is Internet Explorer 6? In the former case, you're a web designer. In the latter, you're one of the awesomely large 30% of websurfers still using IE6 or an earlier version. I know this because my Google Analytics account which monitors the static part of my biggest website, Naturenet, tells me:

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External link: http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html