Adapt and survive

I recently bit the bullet and finally bought a digital camera. This doesn't mean I have abandoned my trusty old SLR - that will come out of retirement any time I need to take 'proper' photographs. The digital camera is great though, but I do have a gripe (didn't you just know I would). The camera has a mains adaptor for charging the battery, naturally... just like my mobile phone... and my PDA... and so on. All these items of digital jewellery have mains adaptors, yet none of these adaptors are interchangeable. Even when the kit is of the same brand, as my camera and phone are! The upshot of this is that I end up with a spaghetti tangle of cables competing for space around my power outlets, cluttering my desk and taking up valuable space around the house. Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to develop a standard for mains adaptors that manufacturers could all adopt. Look at TV aerial cables, hi-fi interconnects and even conventional power outlets. All of these are standardised, so why can't mains adaptors for today's digital goodies conform to a single standard too?

Call me an old cynic if you will, but I suspect the reason is that there is a healthy market in accessory sales and bespoke, brand-specific products. If these adapters were interchangeable, our beloved electronics corporate giants would never sell another one... and the mark-up on accessories like these is staggering. As ever, it's all about the £/$/¥...

Right, I'm off to see if I can untangle enough wires to charge up my camcorder...

I take it all back...

Last month I wrote at some length regarding my concerns for the new version of Doctor Who. Well, two episodes in I find myself in the happy position of wanting to take it all back. Much has been written about the general excellence of Christopher Ecclestone; still more has been said about the exuberant brilliance of Billie Piper. Now Ecclestone is always good value and Piper, despite being somewhat lantern-jawed and over-doing the Estuary English, is very watchable. But for me, the real hero of this comeback is Russell T. Davies.

Davies's scripts sizzle with energy, pace and wit. The tempo is high - whole stories are comfortably resolved in 45 minutes - and the dialogue (mercifully not simplified for the kid-laden target audience) is crammed with loads of subtle jokes aimed squarely at adult viewers. So thank you Russell; I was very worried about my childhood TV memories being slaughtered - instead, I find myself making pleasurable new, adult ones instead.

Now here's hoping the imminent big-screen version of "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is half decent too...