The IT Crowd, written and directed by Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books) and produced by Ash Atalla (The Office, Man Stroke Woman) will return to Channel 4 for a third series in November.

The IT Crowd follows the fresh adventures of Roy (Chris O’Dowd – Festival), Moss (Richard Ayoade – Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Nathan Barley) and Jen (Katharine Parkinson – Doc Martin), who continue, against the odds, to be employed by Reynholm Industries as IT consultants. Their sometimes fragile friendship is reinforced when they become the victims of sexual harassment, create a fundraising erotic calendar, confront the builders from hell, inadvertently assist with a robbery and join a social networking site. Despite attempts to leave the basement of the IT dept, Jen is quickly humiliated into returning to Roy and Moss, while they in turn are lost without her.

Meanwhile their boss Douglas (Matt Berry – Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace), suffers a string of self-inflicted calamities: he shoots himself in the leg, dons a pair of electro shock therapy pants to control sexual desire and, even

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7074692.stm

Hope its better than 2 ...

BSkyB and Virgin Media - a pair of broadcasters who together hold a 42 per cent share of the UK's digital TV - have today agreed new channel carriage deals that will see Sky's basic channels return to Virgin Media's cable service.

Back in March 2007, Sky withdrew its channels from Virgin's service in the wake of a well-publicised and bitter falling out. However, in the face of an ongoing Ofcom consultation, Sky's agreement with Virgin will see the likes of Sky 1, Sky 2, Sky 3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 return to Virgin Media.

The new agreement runs until June 12th 2011, and an existing agreement for Virgin's basic channels to air on Sky has been extended until the same date.

It's good news for viewers, but the channels aren't all free of charge. Sky 3, Sky News and Sky Sports News will become part of Virgin Media's free "M" TV package. At a cost, Sky 1 and Sky 2 will be part of Virgin Media's "L" package and Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 will be part of Virgin Media's "XL" package.

Neil Berkett, Virgin Media's CEO, said:

"We are pleased to bring our carriage negotiations with Sky to a successful close. I believe this agreement represents a fair deal and is the right thing for our customers. We recognise the quality and popularity of Sky's channels and look forward to welcoming them back to Virgin Media's TV service. We are also pleased to secure Sky's continued carriage of the VMTV channels until June 2011."

http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16213

Updated Microsoft is readying Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and will hand it over to beta testers within the next month.

According to Neowin.net, which quotes an MS tipster, betas will be available to a closed group of guinea pigs – though not to the general public – in about four weeks.

Windows Search 4 will reportedly be included in Vista SP2. Bluetooth wireless and VIA 64-bit CPU support will also be crammed into the release that will come with additional application compatibility updates.

Neowin also claimed that a beta of Server 2008 SP2 should arrive in about the same timeframe, and that private testers have already been invited to grapple with the beta.

The build is expected to include better manageability features with the DFS/FRS console, print server and spooler performance improvements and backwards compatibility with Terminal Services licensing keys.

Meanwhile, Microsoft will be brushing Vista under the carpet and lifting the lid on its next major operating system release – Windows 7 – at its Professional Developers' Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles next week.

El Reg asked Microsoft if it could confirm the betas would land for hardcore testers within the next month. However, at time of writing it is yet to return our request for comment. ®
Update

Microsoft has since been in touch with this vague statement:

"Microsoft is working on a second service pack for Windows Vista (Windows Vista SP2) and Windows Server 2008 (Windows Server 2008 SP2).

"Service packs are part of the traditional software lifecycle – they're something we create for all Microsoft products as part of our commitment to continuous improvement – and, as is standard, Microsoft is continuously having conversations with key stakeholders, prior to broadly distributing test builds. We will share more details in the coming months."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/20/vi...ta_coming_soon/

The Nokia N85 is now available! They have started showing up in legitimate eBay stores. Head over to our Nokia N85 price check page to see the lowest price for unlocked without contract. For comparison reason, the lowest price that showed up initially is $668 shipped. It will decrease when more stores get them in.

Make sure you take a look at the feedbacks of the seller if you are planning to pull the trigger. I personally don’t buy from anyone with less than 1000 feedbacks.

So the Nokia N85 is finally here! Who’s going to be the first few to get one?

(IMG:http://thenokiablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/nokia-n85-now-available.jpg)

http://thenokiablog.com/2008/10/12/nokia-n85-now-available/