Welcome back

So...nearly a year, and my commitment to blog regularly has failed miserably...

I seem to manage it for work (writing in my own inimitable fashion, which to be fair has attracted unwarranted attention from the wrong sort) but don't seem to be arsed to do it anywhere else...

Loads has happened since the last post (not that trumpet thing)..can't remember any of it...

went to a rock festival (first one in approximately one million years) and blimey..modern festi goers have it easy..toilets, food, reasonable sound..for goodness sake..where is the pain, discomfort, queueing for hours etc etc...I almost makes it worth thinking about going again..saw the gods AC/DC for around the 22nd time..as I get older, recovery time seems longer; what is interesting in the miusic scene, though, is the return of "classic rock" with bands such as Heavens Basement or Black Stone Cherry

Since I last wrote, something called Twitter has happened (primarily to middle aged "hip things" in the media who have failed to learn texting. Interesting that the phenomena has not really taken off with the real hip young things. Worse, marketeers and PR agencies have discovered it, and that will really kill it off (witness the move into on-line advertising..they have managed to successfully kill that in their avaricious search for the next new thing)...a recent report from their target market of the under 24s suggested that not only does this market not want adverts on-line, they find them intrusive and irritating. Never mind though, I am sure that the agencies get a nice award at a nice do at the Park Lane Hotel.

As the world  looks to improve returns on (any) investment, there is an outside chance that suddenly people will realize that reaching 1 million people in one go (increasingly the average size of ITVs audience on a good night) represents good value for money. Not sexy..but may be of interest to their paymasters!

I would like to finish on a request for guidance: is there an email ettiquette?

If I send an email (or for that matter receive one) when:

- does it become rude to reply (2 days? a week?)

- if you have not had a reply when is it ok to chase (1 hour, 1 week, a year?)

- does it ever get too late to respond?

Questions and puzzles..and only a year to get sorted before my next blog!

Off Topic but it has to be said......

So, car designers invest millions in creating the"must have", top of the range, all singing all dancing (well Citroen have) car packed with all the latest gadgets and gizmos; yet forget to install indicator lights. They have put the little orange or red plastic covers on the four corners of the vehicles, but these are merely colorful decorations (or more likely a reminder of a long forgotten age)...yet I have yet to see any of them twinkle in an interesting and informative way....and it is particularly noticeable on the big 4X4s where it must be assumed that cos the thing blots out the sky as it passes by people intuitively guess which way the driver intends to go, but clearly this must be on modern cars.only ..cos

On the older varieties these bits of coloured sweet paper had special powers..whereby putting both left and right on at the same time resulted in the ability to both park anywhere or just stop (middle of the road, on a corner, the entrance to Tescos) and to be fair it is only the installation of those new anti-shoplifting devices that prevents car owners actually going into Tescos.

Whats in a name....

So what is it that we do when we "timeshift" TV? (assuming that we have gone digital in the first place)...do we video it? Do we use a PVR? What about the DVR? Or the latest potential acronym DTR (Digital Television Recorder)...does it matter? From a pedantic point yes..because the point is that the term should give a vague indication of the activity being carried out..and none of the above cut the mustard. yes it is a recorder, but is it personal (surely everyone uses it), and is it video?

Further what is the associated verb...most people (after the water cooler moment) talk about taping last nights programme, surely that cannot be right...and is brought about by the confusion of the term video

So what about DCR: Digital content recorder. Accepted that the Digital element is almost a given anyway, thus what is one doing recording and what are they recording: content

Whilst it is unlikely that this will receive either the Pulitzer or the Whitbread, its a great start to problem that only really exists in a few peoples heads!


On a completely unrelated note: why do airlines load planes by row (row 65 to 60 for example); this often leads to chaos as inevitably the person with the window seat is the last to get there; so why not load the planes by the seat...so all the "A"s , then "B"s etc. Just a thought.

Is it as important as the gadet......

Yesterday, or today depending on your where you are in the world, came the news that IPhone 2 was coming. Not in the UK yet, but launch delays are the one of the interesting side effects of the UK timezone.

What was more interesting (OK difficult I know with the apparently unassailable gadget of the year) were the associated tariffs. For a variety of unlimited 3G bandwidth consumption ranges , you could even get an IPhone 2 for free (well.....£75 per month for 18 months).

Mobile TV has rather stuttered in its launch, with many a promise from consultants and others that lift off was just around the corner..with little evidence to support that. Excuses for this have either been that it is either too expensive or the service is too poor. A user friendly device on the promised utopia of "all you can eat 3G", may address both these issues in one go.

IPlayer on the Ipod touch is excellent, and coupled with reasonable broadband speeds for browsing can only serve to kick start mobility....


Now then...what about decent battery life!!

Well...here is a thing

There I was buying a new PC in PC World (yes I know but someone has to keep it running!) when it struck me that when I have to buy a new one in two years time (that's modern technology for you)..will I have to submit my details to the TV Licensing authority?

With the recent BBC announcement that I can watch a simulcast of BBC 1 (to supplement my diet of BBC 3 and the News channel (whatever it is called this week)) as well as the various ITV offerings and ultimately Kangaroo, I could in theory get rid of my 42in plasma and confine myself to my mac laptop. Seriously though this does begin to question where the Beeb is going with this, and the implications for the licence fee itself. With a current remit to reach as many TV licence holders as possible (as after all they have funded the material) , there is a leap of faith that the numbers of people who will watch this material without having bought a licence will not be material.

"You need a TV Licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, digital box, DVD or video recorder, PC, laptop or mobile phone to watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV" Source TV licencing website (June 2008).


Fine as that stands, but lets say the UK broadband networks becomes large/fast enough to support HD streams...still need a TV? A large LCD without a tuner, powered by a media PC...do you need a TV licence? Even the second generation of the IPhone (over 3G) should start to provide watchable (obviously not sitting room quality) experiences..again..another call to Bristol required? Is there some complex back engine database that checks when you buy the IPhone you have a valid TV licence?

Does this begin to see a move away from a structured licence into a centrally funded PSB for news, educational and children's programmes, leaving the field open for commercial organisations to provide the remaining entertainment. This could be supplemented by "sponsorship" of certain types of programming (so the WWF sponsor the next David Attenborough nature-fest).

Just a thought

Welcome here.....

Well..here it is..the first of an occasional something....I have been threatening to do it for some time so what is it about? Well, those of you that know me, know that I generally have an opinion about most things..and whilst they are all clearly fascinating (and occasionally entertaining..intentionally or other wise) I thought that I could capture some of these and see how consistent I am over a given period of time. It is fair to say that I have been known to change my view several times during a conversation let alone any longer.

What I will do, though is commit to only pontificating on thoughts on meja rather than the impact of rice shortages at my local curry or the rising price of diesel (Important issues yes, but not on my current event horizon).

Two things:

i) I have checked and I am not Charles Dickens or Emily Bronte, so there is an outside chance of spelling and grammatical errors..
ii) I am not representing the views of anyone who pays my salary