The Weekly Round-Up: 05.12.08

It's been something of a defining year for the US and the rest of the world, what with the credit crunch, the election of Barack Obama and, of course World of Warcraft's hotly anticipated Wrath of the Lich King release.

Looking back over this momentous year, search engine Ask.com has revealed its list of the most popular searches in 2008 with its CEO Jim Safka declaring: "The heart and soul of America - our passions, concerns and aspirations - are reflected in this year's searches."

So that'll be searches such as 'change', 'Obama' and 'recession'? Not quite. On Ask.com one of the most popular search terms of 2008 was, wait for it…'dictionary' - which got the Round-Up wondering where people who want to spell dictionary go to?

It gets more interesting with Ask.com's list of the most popular questions searched for by Americans this year. Topping the list was 'How do I get pregnant?', closely followed by 'How do I lose weight?', while other gems in the top 10 questions asked included 'Why is the sky blue?' and 'What is the meaning of life?'. The 'heart and soul of America', eh?

The UK-tailored version of this Ask.com top 10 also features the question 'Who is the Stig?' - referring to Top Gear's infamous masked test driver. Much like the Round-Up really. It is rumoured to be a former Formula 1 driver. The Stig, that is, not the Round-Up. Although you never know...

Yahoo! has also revealed its top searches for 2008 and Britney Spears topped the list ahead of Obama, while Obama himself was the fastest rising search term on Google this year, followed by 'facebook' and 'iphone'.

It's certainly going to be interesting to see how future historians piece together civilisation in the early 21st century as they plough through search engine records.

There's an argument saying the physical collectability of music is being destroyed by the virtual digital revolution. While there is still a hardcore minority who remain staunchly loyal to vinyl most of us now eschew the joy of scratchy records and CDs in favour of having our entire music collection stored on hard drives and miniscule MP3 players.

But the bods at insurance company More Than have found that Brits suffer from 'music collection deficiency'. That's not about Brits having deficient music collections, though the Round-Up knows plenty of people who do, but about underestimating the value of the collections we own - by an average of more than £1,000 each.

Of course in a none-too-subtle manner More Than is simply pointing out we should all have more insurance cover, but the Round-Up digresses.

The research found 80 per cent of Brits admit they have never considered the worth of their music collections, while only four per cent correctly identify their CD rack contents as being worth more than £2,000.

Interestingly, the research also found that Geordie men have the biggest music collections, worth an average of £2,868 each. The Round-Up wonders just how many copies of Lindisfarne's 'Fog on the Tyne' and Jimmy Nail's 'Crocodile Shoes' that is. OK, that's a cheap shot. Of course, Newcastle has spawned many of this country's great musical acts, including the likes of heavy metal band Venom, Dire Straits and Gazza. And not forgetting Sting and, err, Maximo Park.

Perhaps not surprisingly it is pretentious indie music fans who lay claim to having the most valuable CD collections - with their Bluetones and Slowdive-loaded music libraries worth an average of £2,913 - which comes in at almost £1,000 more than the average pop fan's collection. Jazz fans come in second with collections worth £2,883, with rockers third with £2,750.

But there may be hidden gold in your attic - not a copy of Spandau Ballet's classic 'Gold', but a rare record. The research says two-thirds of Brits have no idea if they have any rare gems among their record collection - such as The Beatles White Album with a black inner sleeve (worth up to £1,200) or The Sex Pistols Never Mind the B*llocks with a pink rear sleeve with no track listing (worth more than £600).

More Than's spokesman said: "We advise people to sift through their CDs, even those forgotten boxes of vinyl in the loft, and create an inventory just in case the worst should happen. Who knows, perhaps in the process we'll be able to help people unearth some real 'cash in the attic'. "

With those words ringing in its ears the Round-Up ventured up into the attic and, after narrowly avoiding falling through the floor and fighting past dozens of boxes of accumulated Christmas decorations and suitcases, excitedly found a collection of old 7" vinyl singles.

Sadly Bucks Fizz's 'Making your Mind Up' and Ray Parker Jr's 'Ghostbusters' theme aren't likely to make the Round-Up rich any time soon. Anyway, the future's digital, haven't you heard?

The Simpsons might not be what it used to be, in the Round-Up's humble opinion, but Bart and his dysfunctional family took a sideswipe at Apple in an episode aired on US TV this week featuring the opening of a new 'Mapple' store in Springfield. You see what they did there?

The store features a 'Braniac Bar' and the MyCube, which is "fuelled by dreams and powered by imagination", one of the staff tells Homer.

"It's so sterile," coos Lisa, unable to even afford the $40 for the 'MyPhonies' white ear buds so she can pretend she has a 'MyPod'. The episode won't air in the UK until next year, so watch out for it.

It's actually not the first time The Simpsons have sent up Apple. Back in 1994 Apple's Newton PDA and handwriting recognition technology came in for stick on an episode where school bully Kearney has his friend Dolph take a memo on a Newton. Dolph writes "Beat up Martin" on the screen but the handwriting recognition turns it into "Eat up Martha" and Kearney throws the Newton at Martin instead…

Finally, ever wondered how long it takes to roast a laptop in the oven? Depends on how well done you want it, of course, but find out about this in the top 10 weirdest computing disasters of 2008.

With Christmas just around the corner, what do you buy the techie who has everything - an R2-D2 USB stick, a Google phone or a 'green' mobile phone charger? Get some ideas in our guide to the 10 must have items on every geek's list.

Get a sneaky peek at the hot "beachfront property" of Windows 7.

And don't forget the Caption Competition.