If you are unhappy with the fact that you could go to prison for ripping your CDs to your MP3 player (even if only in theory), sign Suw Charman's on-line petition: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to create a new exception to copyright law that gives individuals the right to create a private copy of copyrighted materials for their own personal use, including back-ups, archiving and shifting format.

Of course, it'll make no difference - the gits in number ten aren't interested in the opinions of those who don't read The Mail or The Sun these days. But still, stand up and be counted.

Via Boing Boing.

Right; I'm off to the London Python meetup. See you there.

Sam recently set up the London 2.0 Community Portal. It occurred to me that we London Pythonistas could really do with a site of our own, and since Menno had already set up Planet London Python, with hosting and domain provided by Remi at Web Faction, so I thought I'd ask if it could be hosted there.

So, here's London Python Announce, the London Python event portal.

By the way, I'd seen the screencast of Web Faction's control panel before - but everything looks good in a demo. ;-) Now I've tried the real thing, and it's almost too easy. El Presidente watched over my shoulder, and he thinks that even he could set it up.

Proof of His existence:

Via Michael.

Simon pointed me at Last.fm the other night. Interesting site - It looks at what you listen to, recommends new bands that you might like based on other users with similar tastes, and will even build you a custom radio stream. Here's what I'm listening to:

It's a shame that it only takes note of what you listen to whilst on-line - it'll miss out on what I listen to whilst travelling. Even more sad, it can't take advantage of the enormous historical record that my iTunes library has kept for me: 25,879 tracks played, 73 days, 14:10:16 play time. The iTunes Registry does take account of your full history - but it doesn't do recommendations.

Right, I'm off to London 2.0, via a spot of CD and book shopping. I'll see a few of you there, no doubt.

Time to select a venue for next week's London Python meetup on Wednesday (the 15th). I was thinking of trying The Porterhouse in Covent Garden for a change. The place is vast, so there should be no problem getting a table or two so long as I get there reasonably early, and it's pretty central. Worth giving it a go, I reckon.

All welcome, from Python gurus to the merely curious. Please leave a comment if you are thinking of coming.

BTW, to be reminded of this and any other London Python meetup, try this: