Using AVG 8.5 (paid for) with iTunes 8.2

I couldn't find any way to update podcasts using iTunes 8.2.0.23 on a Windows XP laptop with AVG 8.5.387 (paid for). I kept receiving the message "there was a problem downloading (podcast). The network connection could not be established"

The problem lay in the firewall settings: iTunes was set to 'Allow for safe'. When I changed the setting to 'Allow for All', the problem went away.

UK Euro watch - June 2009

This is our monthly round-up of BBC content touching the possibility of the UK entering EMU and adopting the Euro.

UK Euro adoption was briefly a hot topic in the first half June, largely due to reports of Peter Mandelson's opinions. After that, all went quiet. He may have slipped this in to divert attention from the Government's shocking results in the Euro elections and the ongoing furore over MPs' expenses, but these continued to command much of the available air time.

10th June: Peter Mandelson commented on BBC1's Andrew Marr show (transcript here) "I personally think that our future, economic future will be more secure in the Euro zone with that currency. But I've always accepted that the economic conditions have to be right." Jonathan Oliver wrote in The Times on 14 June that "His confidence is such that on a trip to Berlin last week, Mandelson effectively rewrote Britain’s policy on the euro, declaring that we were “obviously” heading for entry into the single currency."