TV Times

Chris Norton, May 23rd 2006, 12:38PM

This year Big Brother rolled out its uber-trashy all-seeing televisual eyes amidst a welter of warnings - 'kiss goodbye to your summer' cried everyone from Heat magazine to BB's own increasingly cartoonish Davina McCall. There's a grain of truth in that, at least for those of us who can't be bothered putting up an impenetrable, culturally cool acceptable front... in fact half of us round these parts of the office are already discussing Shahbaz every morning, like the bunch of gossiping old fishwives we really are.

The real-time nature of BB, and the fact that it generates those 'water-cooler' conversations (you know, the sort all the media journalists were going on about a few years ago), well it makes me think. There's all this buzz online about iTunes selling episodes of Lost (another of our favourites, especially now the plot seems to revolve around people sitting in a room doing inexplicable things with computers) and the new plan to sell 24 (yeah, we love Bauer too) on myspace.

But this narrowcasting approach, treating TV shows like music, seems a little foolish - TV is completely different, and nowhere near the solitary experience the naysayers wibble on about. In fact, I think it's the most social of modern media. Discussion of last night's crop of big shows is a vital office bonding experience... Daz got quite annoyed with me because I missed Lost the other week, and fair enough, I was a bit miffed myself. Not because I missed it, but because we all need a bit of fuel for talking outside of the world of SQL queries and web form design. OK, and because I missed it.

Hey, if you can't gossip openly about your colleagues, at least you can gossip openly about the people on TV - and to do that you need to be tuning in as it happens, in synch. Now where's my copy of Heat?

Tags: bigbrother, conversations, media, myspace, office, tv, video
# Comment (3 comments)

Working within the chain

Jonathan Bowers, May 22nd 2006, 6:13PM

The business world is a tremendously reliant one. I can't think of any businesses that do not rely in one way or another on a supplier or a customer.

At one time it was the producer who held all the cards. High Street shops would buy perishable goods from farms and would sell based on what they could get. Nowadays, supermarkets have overturned that power, dictating what they want provided by whom, riding down prices and driving up quality. A good thing for the customer. A good thing for the supplier?

When you add the Internet into the equation you introduce further layers of reliance. The companies that house the world's Internet sites are reliant on a multitude of suppliers, in the same way that Bill Gates needs computer makers and computer makers need chip suppliers.

Reliance is something that makes life a challenge but can also make it very frustrating. I wonder if you can think of any businesses that do not rely on outside forces of one kind or another?

Tags: reliance
# Comment (0 comments)

The names of the tools of the trade

Chris Norton, May 19th 2006, 10:17AM

As usual the web is lit up like an indignant christmas tree with discussions about the latest developments in what is usually (and somewhat laughably) called the console war. The big news is Nintendo's unhinged decision to call their new great gaming hope The Nintendo Wii. The Wii! Pronounced 'wee'! Oh, the hilarity!

This made me think about names. We routinely talk a load of old rubbish in IT, forced to do so by the strange names of the programs we use. Let's have a look at some of the big names:

Internet Explorer - good, solid, boring name. Does what it says on the tin. My only issue would be that it really only explores the web, not the whole net. And using its initials makes you sound like you've just been stabbed with a protractor. Iiieeeee!

Firefox - much more romantic, mythical sounding. Foxs are... kind of quick. Fire is... sort of fast. OK, so it sounds like a rebranding of the word hotdog, and has nothing to do with the web. Still it does sound cool.

Flash - a great name, as with Firefox it tries to intimate speed, plus the technology is all about adding flashy stuff to websites. Makes me think of the Queen song and the film, which can't be a bad thing. Perhaps a slight hint of self-exposure is in there, but it's well hidden.

Dreamweaver - hilariously unconnected to what it does. A great program (and this is coming from an avowed hand-coder), but sitting there with your tables and CSS palettes does not feel particularly dreamlike. Also makes me think of spoof horror writer Garth Marenghi, who describes himself as 'Author, Dreamweaver, Visionary'.

Photoshop - it is, basically, the modern version of a photoshop. Sounds definitive, and is.

The Gimp - everything I feel about this program is summed up in that name. Except I'm more inclined to leave it sleeping than ever decide to 'bring out the gimp'

Tags: dreamweaver, firefox, flash, gaming, internetexplorer, names, photoshop, thegimp, windows
# Comment (2 comments)

New domains to ease communication?

Jonathan Bowers, May 18th 2006, 11:01AM

The announcement has come this week that ICANN has accepted a proposal for the new top level domain .tel to go forward. The domain is sponsored by telecommunications company Telnic and aims to provide users with the ability to contact a company (or a person) by using companyname.tel instead of having to know numbers.

I've been trying this morning to contact Telnic about this and find out more. There are details on their website and ICANN also has an explanation (albeit less straight forward) on their site but I'd like to find out the things they don't tell us.

In the UKFast Podcast, I discussed tld's a few weeks ago and this new development feels worth a little extra feature. If you look at the FAQ's on the Telnic site, you'll find information about new software needed and the solution is to get the newly developed software from Telnic themselves. Suddenly the reason for the new tld starts to make more commercial sense.

The board at ICANN must realise this, as one of the members Susan Crawford has questioned ICANN's role in choosing sponsors after this decision. It suggests to me that the commercial gains often outweigh the actual necessity for the domain to come into fruition.

I keep an open mind however and await a return call...

Tags: telecommunications, topleveldomains
# Comment (0 comments)

Traditional travel catches up

Jonathan Bowers, May 17th 2006, 5:25PM

Within the same week, UK travel agent Thomson announces its growing success online and one of the Internet stalwarts Expedia suffers a drastic fall in shares as first quarter results disappoint.

The sector has been very interesting to watch online and I wonder if we are now experiencing the fight back that has been muted for some time. The Internet has changed the model of how we book holidays and in some way what we expect from a holiday, but the holiday experience, the senses and feelings, that traditional travel agents have for years used to lure us into the holiday of a lifetime, are finding their way online. Video streaming is just one of the techniques that Thomson is employing to deliver the desire and it seems to be working.

In every sector now, the next big web challenge is to provide the consumer with a sensory experience in one form or another. So, does it stand to reason that those who are practised offline, will now take the lead online?

Tags: travel
# Comment (0 comments)