BBC Three Links

Is anyone else getting fed up with these links on BBC Three, the ones with home made video introducing the next show?

They just come across as so cheap and tacky.

Dual Core PC Adverts

I’m getting a little annoyed with adverts for PCs with dual core processors. They’re always desribed as allowing you to do two things at once, like editing your family photos while listening to music.

I don’t know about you, but I can already do that with my current single core PC.

I’m sorry, am I in your way?

Having cut loose the defective secondary hard drive from my computer, I needed to re-install Acrobat reader, and the latest version was version nine.

After it tried installing everything Adobe are making, these days, it then proceeded to complain that the drive is fragmented and should be cleaned up to make the software work faster.

What the hell?!?

Knock off Nigel adverts

What is it with those knock off Nigel adverts?

The first was about someone buying knock off DVDs, where the only thing I discovered was that nothing rhymes with “DVDs.”

This new one is even more preplexing. It suggests that knock off Nigels who download films from the Internet are also likely to steal money from collections at work.

I honestly don’t know where they’re going with this line. It makes no sense at all. If the intention is to aim the advert at the people who download films, I can’t see it having any impact on their behaviour. And if their intent is to make downloading socially unacceptable, there are bigger threats that need to be dealt with first, like inner city violence, drunk driving and drug abuse. I can’t see them trying to alienate downloaders having any impact.

It’s absurd.

Phorm and My Data

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7301379.stm

Another report says that Phorm needs better protection and that it will be black listed amoung data analyst firms if they go ahead with their current proposal. But the first article is very interesting in that it implies that the technology itself may be illegal, since users have to give consent for their data to be intercepted.

At present Talk Talk say their system will be opt-in, but BT and Virgin have yet to make a decision.

Personally I will be very surprised if this doesn’t get appealed against in the law courts.

What’s with the FIA this year?

Stupid decisions go hand in hand with the FIA like conspiracy theories and 9/11. In 2003 they insisted that the Belgium race go ahead in fog so bad that the drivers could barely see the car in front of them. That decision totalled almost every car in the starting line-up. Of the 23 car on the starting grid, 21 were smashed or run off the track at the first corner. I’ll always remember it. The cars took off and disappeared into a bank of fog. The scene cut to the next camera down the track, but the image stayed the same; grey soup. An suddenly out came a car. Followed by a tyre. Then another tyre. And they were followed by an uncountable number of car parts.

It was a disaster.

Now in the new race year, the FIA has banned traction control on the cars. While traction control can be argued gives the cars an advantage, it is also an essential safety device. Evidence that this was a mistake was shown in the Australian Grand Prix. So many drivers spinning off the track, so many accidents.

What were they thinking?

The High Def War is Over!

(Probably)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7250068.stm

Toshiba is likely to cease production of HD-DVD players, Wal-Mart has already stopped stocking both the players and the movies and a key supplier for Toshiba’s HD-DVD production line has alegedly already stopped production.

So it looks like Bluray wins by default.

It’s only taken two years, compared with the ten years that BetaMax hung on in there, so it’s sort of a blessing.

But I think Sony are going to be surprised by the number of Bluray players they’re not going to sell after this announcement.

I don’t think the world is ready to switch to high def movies yet. The TVs are still all over the place in terms of compatibility, the standards are still being re-written and the technology is still too expensive for most.

End of the Writers’ Strike

So the writers’ strike is finally over, just in time for the Oscars.

And the writers will now be paid for online content and DVD sales.

However the whole thing smacks of trouble in the future. As I understand it, the writers were originally paid very little for DVD sales because when DVDs first arrived, no-one knew if they were going to be a success, and the studios went with an attitude of “let’s see how it goes, then we can negotiate the pay”, only they then ‘forgot’ to go back to the issue.

As one of my friends put it, there nothing like having lots of money to make people want to avoid losing money.

But the whole issue got me thinking. I think DVDs are to the TV and film industry what MP3s were to the music industry. When MP3s came out, they were ignored or sidelined. Music companies wanted people to just keep buying CDs. They didn’t see the need to innovate, nor did they want to. They had, in effect, become stuck in a rut.
I think DVDs are a similar issue. TV studios only seem to look at distribution and ratings of on-air shows. They see DVDs as little more than an additional income source after the fact.

But to see what effect they can have, you only need to look at one of my favourite shows: Family Guy. It was cancelled because of poor ratings, mostly because it needed to be on later at night due to content and language. However, once cancelled the DVD sales went through the roof. So much so that the show was brought back from the grave.

And that’s the problem the industry faces. They continue to ignore DVD income and so great shows get cancelled after one year, whereas crap cheap TV like Big Brother carries on, even when it has become stale and repetitive.

There are a few promising signs. Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5 are experimenting with direct to DVD distribution. Several shows are going online only, and DVDs are coming out quicker after TV shows go off the air for the season.

But overall, I don’t think the industry is changing fast enough or learning from its mistakes. And that makes me worry about the future.

No no no no no no no no……

Injury Lawyers 4 u advert on the TV.

Claiming….somehow that suing people for accidents is helping to restore the universe’s cosmic balance.

Am I the only one who’s worried by that?

I don't get it.

I’ve just seen a new DVD boxset in HMV with all four Alien movies, both Predator movies and Aliens vs Predator (AVP), marketted as “The Aliens & Predator Ultimate Collectors Edition.”

This at the same time that AVP2 is in cinemas (and being panned by critics by the way).

I just don’t get it. Why would you sell a box set called the “ultimate collection” when it’s already out of date, as AVP2 is missing from it.