Apparently added to YouTube from the BBC’s HD Preview – and helpfully labelled “DW PotD trailer 01” – a trailer for the first of the new Doctor Who specials, Planet of the Dead, is now online. And here it is:

A trailer (presumably this one, but maybe not) will be shown on BBC One tonight before The Apprentice.

And the episode itself will be aired at Easter, so not long to wait.

<blows dust and cobwebs away>

Is this thing on?

So, at the weekend I went to BarCamp London 6. If you’re not familiar with the concept if a barcamp, it’s a type of unconference.

Perhaps more helpfully, Wikipedia sayeth:

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats. The format has also been used for a variety of other topics, including public transit, health care, and political organizing.

The key element of an unconference is that the agenda is not set beforehand, unlike, well, a conference. Participants bagsy slots on the timetable at the beginning and most run a session as well as attending others.

One of the highlights – amongst many good sessions – was the first session I went to on Sunday morning. Organised by lastminute.com’s Richard Lewis Jones, it comprised two rounds of Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute. This being a weekend packed with clever geeks, we not only had the theme tune to introduce the games, but hi-tech buzzers in the form of Wii remotes, magicked up by Tom Scott. Thanks to Proactive Paul, videos of the two games are on YouTube. I was on the second panel and you can watch the whole thing right here.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Anyhoo, it was a great weekend. Huge props* to Emma Persky and her team for organising and to everyone who ran sessions.

* Don’t worry, I don’t say this in real life

…here is a pointless nerd meme.

(Hat-tip.)

A non-musial interlude now with this brief foray into politics.

I read the news today, oh boy, and it said

Cameron would cut MP numbers

which was like déjà vu all over again. Haven’t the Tories talked about this before?

Ah, yes. Here’s Michael Howard’s pledge from 2004:

The Conservative Party would cut the number of MPs by about one-fifth if they were elected, Tory leader Michael Howard has said.
[…]
The precise number of MPs to go would depend on the result of the Welsh referendum [to scrap the Assembly], but it would probably mean a reduction of around 120 from the current total of 659.

And here’s Cameron’s “new” proposal:

David Cameron would remove more than 60 MPs as part of a Tory plan to make parliament work more efficiently.

Drawing on plans drawn up by Kenneth Clarke, the former chancellor, the Tory leader today pledges to introduce legislation in his first term as prime minister to cut the size of the Commons by 10%. There are currently 646 MPs, a figure that is due to increase to 650 at the next election.

So Cameron – via Kenneth Clarke’s constitutional review – has managed to come up with basically the same policy as before, except significantly less ambitious.

And while we’re playing House of Commons size reduction top trumps, let’s check what Nick Clegg’s position is:

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is calling for the number of MPs in the House of Commons to be cut by 150.

That’ll be two-and-a-half times more MPs gone than the Tories are offering.