One of the less exciting self-gifts I picked up over Christmas ("Self-Gifting. Where It's More Than The Thought That Counts!") was a subscription to Amazon Prime. If you don't know what that is, you haven't visited Amazon recently. In essence, you pay £50 up-front for a year's post and packaging.

Why do that? Well, when you buy as many books as I do, it makes pretty good sense. They're cheaper than going down to the bookstore, and much easier if you're looking for something obscure. I like poking round the shelves, but I won't say I mind just being able to say "You. Gimme." And when P&P is removed from the equation... at least, in the mind... it's much easier to say "Oooh. £3 for a copy of The Subtle Knife?" and one-click with impunity. It's One Day Delivery, no assembling a big order just to avoid being gouged. And after testing it the other day with a couple of books I've been meaning to pick up, it seems to work pretty well.

All that said, this is still my favourite Amazon thing of late:

2 PC games for £20

PC games in the "2 for £20" promotion may be purchased individually for £12.47. Total price of two PC games may be less than £20.

What a bargain!

Nvidia has released a video demo of a human head, looking very realistic, all being rendered in real time on an 8800 Ultra.

It can be found here

On the site, it says "Special thanks to actor Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) for allowing us to use his likeness to deliver the next level in realistic real-time characters."

Personally I think they used Michael Stipe of REM as inspiration for the model. They got the hair right at the very least.