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Well, happy birthday anyway!

On the ripping thing, it's probably worth noting that in the UK, you have zero legal right regarding format-shifting. It's actually not legal to rip a CD to MP3s unless you have the express permission of the copyright holder. The good news is that Vince Cable's recent announcement regarding updating British copyright law (flying in the face of some pretty extreme lobbying from the usual suspects in the entertainment sector) will make personal ripping legal and might even make it illegal for companies to restrict the practice (rather like the 1988 copyright act did for software).

It looks more classic and a lot smaller—budget cuts? I rather liked the open organic/steampunk thing, but I guess this fits in more with previous TARDIS console room designs.

Ah, my mistake. I was looking at the pics on Jock's Twitter feed—it seems Fuso flipped the image before he traced it, and then swapped the shoulder pad accordingly.

I really think this "WTF OMFG Tehe 3d1tor is an 4L13N 111!!!oneoneone" stuff has gone too far and has run its course.

I think it's fun. Mind you, I remember the 'Men in Black' days.

Minor controversy over on twitter as Jock spots not one but TWO straight tracings from his own work in Antonio Fuso's story... :-(

If someone's going to trace, they could at least get the eagle on the right bloody shoulder. As for the Meg in general, I thought it was an OK issue. The festive Dredd was OK, the wrap-up for the death match one was quite fun, and bar artwork swipes, the Tale was a decent yarn. Anderson... I'm not sure I care any more, but I keep hoping she'll again hit the highs of the old days, or Shamballa, or Satan.

Also, I don't recall reading Disaster 1990 before, but maybe I did and just forced it out of my memory. It's... not held up that well, has it?

Icelanders do the same: dinner at 6pm on the 24th and gifts afterwards.

It looks like the Russians almost got it for Chrimbo..
http://videsoon.com/dvd-release-date/dredd-3d-2012

Given that they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January, they really did.

Or basically I gave up because of all the inconsistency over the last year or so. You just can't win.

Quite. Bear in mind even the Peanuts collections by Canongate—surely the easiest spines in the world to get consistent—have errors. Fro 63/64, the logo has been red rather than the book's key colour, and the year stamp moves up and down.

I'd say the one way in which you can really figure out the quality of a service is when things go wrong, not when they go right. Since I started subscribing (which I've done for years now), I've had several missed Progs/Megs and a couple of badly damaged ones (Royal Mail issues, natch). There was also an incident where my sub wasn't renewed one time, despite the payment being taken.

Other companies might offer excuses, or slowly rumble a solution into view. One publisher that has a mag I subscribe to increments subscriptions when a magazine doesn't arrive, and so you don't get a replacement—just a lengthened sub. But without exception, Rebellion Subscriptions sorted every problem I've had efficiently and in a friendly manner, even in the cases where things weren't their fault. Continuing the positive angle, issues typically arrive Monday or earlier (it's common for me to get my 2000 AD on a Saturday morning), and you get a wee Future Shocks book and protection from price rises through subbing.

In short: I would wholeheartedly recommend subscribing to 2000 AD over buying it in the shops.

You'll prize my full size bluetooth white Apple extended keyboard from my cold, dead hands

I love the slimline metal ones, although it took time to get used to the 'bounce' of the Bluetooth one with my new iMac versus the extended one I had before. I'm a huge fan of the short travel—fantastic for typing with.

It's a little flabby, but that edit is much better at showcasing the kind of hard-arses action film Dredd is. Fingers crossed it goes down well in Japan. (I imagine it'll sneak a couple of million, but here's hoping for some kind of quickfire 'everyone must see this' phenomenon that sometimes happens when that country really grabs on to something.)

For the iPad (deep breath):

Capture (immediate video recording); Photogene (photo editor); WeatherPro HD; Animoog, Figure, GarageBand and NanoStudio (music); PCalc (calculator—Soulver is also worth considering for a different take on calculations); Dropbox; Dictionary; WriteRoom (Dropbox-sync writing tool); eBay; Facebook and Tweetbot; Reeder, Comic Zeal; Wikipanion; Remote (if you get an Apple TV, or even if you don't); Air Video; TuneIn Radio; BBC iPlayer; Flixter; TV Guide; TED; AppShopper; Tap! magazine (which I write for!); 30/30; Solar Walk; Pocket or Instapaper.

Games: Bit Pilot; Café International; Hero Academy; Letterpress; Pinball Arcade; Super Hexagon; Ticket to Ride; Gridrunner; Forget Me Not; Magnetic Billiards; Plants vs Zombies HD; Space Invaders Infinity Gene; Super Stickman Golf; Trainyard (fantastic puzzler); World of Goo HD; Zen Bound 2; Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

If you do Twitter, follow my @iphonetiny account, which regularly tweets about great apps, freebies and deals. Also regularly check AppShopper for discounts and free stuff.

On Anderson, I guess I wasn't too far off with my estimate, then. It's a pity the book won't quite wrap up 'old' Anderson (i.e. all the stuff before the current Meg era), but the flip side of that is a more complete set of strips from annuals, which I wasn't expecting, so: hurrah!

Crusade: not read that in years, but I recall it being OK. Still, most of the problems I've had with Anderson have been catastrophic events not remotely referred to in Dredd, and so whereas at one time the strips were clearly heavily linked, they ended up feeling like two entirely separate continuities. On their own, however, the run in my recollection varied from readable to very good indeed, and the 'Satan' stuff (included in the upcoming book) was when I read it a genuinely hard-hitting story with some great character work (including a [spoiler]typically glacial Dredd shift in attitude towards Anderson, which felt very right and also similar to how he was in the recent film[/spoiler]).

My copy of the iPad app still has individual issues available for download. Note Prog 2013 won't be in there yet, because issues don't arrive in the app until when they're in stores, so it'll likely show up on Wednesday.