Today I tried downloading a podcast for the first time . . . well, I'd just managed to get my PDA's wireless keyboard working again so I felt like I was on a roll.

I'd got a copy of iTunes lurking on my system, so thought I'd give it a try . . . it had chosen to install itself as part of something else I had wanted, which is normally extremely irritating. I mean, if I wanted a hundred icons lurking in my system tray, I'd have ticked the bastard option to do so, wouldn't I?

"Yes, please install several frivolous and unnecessary options into the most resource-intensive part of the computer memory, hogging all the start-up resources so it takes my PC twenty minutes to boot. I would like to be perpetually reminded to upgrade the shitty beta experiments into something vaguely resembling stable software at extortionate cost, and would appreciate these digital assassins choosing to launch themselves just when I'm doing something important or in a hurry to get home and catch the train, borking my computer and needing half an hour just to end-task so I can restart the fucker".

Ahem. Anyway . . . the iTunes thing was cool. To begin with I tried The Apparat broadcast . . . the end song reminding me that most good old folk tunes deal with sexual perversity. Believe me, I have a friend who was ideally placed in Cecil Sharpe House archives to confirm this.

But I also found that iTunes "looks" at what other people have available - dunno if this is on our network here on the web, but there's shitloads of great things that I really don't have all the time I need to listen to. For instance, I'd wanted to get an album by Sigur Ros, but didn't know what they were like: well, three tracks later I know that's going to be a worthwhile buy.

Best of all? There's hundreds of live Bill Hicks tracks. I can quote most of his published stuff verbatim so to hear him improvising to the crowds is an absolute joy.

For those of you looking for the usual ranting, I promise I'll be back to me normal self next week.