Folks, I’ve been asked to pop up a survey on the sidebar over right to learn a bit about our readers. Could you do me a favour and spend a couple of minutes filling it in? There’s a chance to win an Xbox 360, which is a bit of a nice incentive eh? PS To save you time hunting for it, just click this link. Thanks.   (Needless to say, it’s all totally private blah blah…) Tags: red+ferret+survey

I’ve just put up a Write for Us section in the sidebar to encourage anyone who’d like to write for us to step forward and shoot for stardom. As I said last year, having more than one voice on here really adds value, so I’m keen to encourage more of it. In return for your efforts you’ll get a proper 45 word promotional byline to push your blog or business to the world, which should help you get some attention. Please…

Just a quick note to say watch out for a fake IKEA HomePlanner email in your inbox, because it carries a nasty bit of Trojan malware in an attachment. I mention it only because the message looks totally genuine, which makes it unusual. If you receive the message don’t open the attachment AT ALL, just delete the thing and be safe. Tags: ikea+homeplanner+trojan+virus, malware, internet+security

I’m currently finalising the Ferret’s Best of 2008 product list, so if you’ve got anything you want to nominate, now’s the time to speak. Just drop me a line or astroturf comment here and I’ll take note. Tags: red+ferret+best+of+2008, awards

Here’s to a very Merry Time over this holiday season wherever you are. May your wishbone be sturdy, your gravy uncurdled and the trimmings trummed. We’re trying to be sensible this year, but it’s probably not going to work, there’s just too much temptation darn it. Anyway all the best to our readers, supporters, friends and enablers. Here’s to a fun time for all. Here’s a little song for you to help the day go well. We’ll be posting normally…

I’m not sure about Dan, ‘cause he’s his own boss around here, but we’re sliding ever so gently into the festive spirit, which means a posting slowdown. This isn’t the official holiday post, that’ll wait until tomorrow, but nevertheless for those of you in countries which celebrate today – like Sweden (hej hej) – have a great time. In the meantime here’s a small but nice collection of free Christmas books from the public domain in PDF format. Enjoy. Tags: happy+holidays

Sorry about the glitch with the images in our RSS feeds, folks, broken plugin problems. Hope to restore normal service soon. Tags: rss+feeds, red+ferret

Ta-Da. So we bit the bullet, took the plunge, jumped the tortoise and launched a brand new Red Ferret design last night. We hope you like it. Some of the greatest personalities of the 20th century helped pull it together, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes (thanks for the wooly mittens, Ran!), Sir Paul McCartney for the colour scheme, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa for the loud exclamations at important moments and last but not least, Mrs Miggins next door for the lovely meat pies….

I’m currently taking a few days to grab some last minute R&R, peeps. Slow posting alert. Normal service will be resumed mid next week.

Whew, great. The malware has now been vaporized thanks to some excellent work by the team at my awesome web hosting service MediaLayer. In the last 48 hours the Ferret has been scrubbed, cleaned, polished and gleams once more as in yesteryear. We’re now just sitting here waiting to see how long it will be before the Mighty Google (TM) releases us from this bad boy’s prison. Of course we’re hoping not long, but who knows….? Thanks for all the…