Musings from a developer of different kinds of formats. Note - this blog is many a time a kind of notebook for me to remember things I've come into touch with or reflections and ideas that I've had during development projects. If you can find use for the writings here, I'm well happy. By Simon Staffans.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sorry... :)
Glömde länka till sidan med alla kvällstidningsorden igår. Den är ju courtesy of Flashback Forum, såklart - läs och njut, och utöka er vokabulär no end!
Register! Register now!
Registration for the Eyes on iTV conference in late May has now opened at the website. Register now! Not only is it cheaper, you also get first pick of the t-shirts :)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Det Svenska Språket
Ofta tycker jag att det är rätt tråkigt att ha svenska som modersmål. Språket är liksom lite andefattigt på något sätt. Jämfört med till exempel finskan, som är kort och kraftigt och mycket mycket bra att uttrycka sig kärnfullt på, eller engelskan där allt man säger kan utvecklas till en lyckad slogan.
Men så kan man ju utveckla språk också - vilket de svenska kvällstidningarna verkar vara mycket bra på. För en fantastisk lista på ALLA kvällstidningsord, var vänliga och klicka här.
Mina favoriter? För många för att räkna upp här, men exempelvis Vampyrekorre, Tjockisattack, Terrorgranne, Onanischlager och Knarkchoklad är ju alla fina fina ord, ägnade att lugna läsare och på ett nyanserat sätt beskriva omgivningen. :)
Men så kan man ju utveckla språk också - vilket de svenska kvällstidningarna verkar vara mycket bra på. För en fantastisk lista på ALLA kvällstidningsord, var vänliga och klicka här.
Mina favoriter? För många för att räkna upp här, men exempelvis Vampyrekorre, Tjockisattack, Terrorgranne, Onanischlager och Knarkchoklad är ju alla fina fina ord, ägnade att lugna läsare och på ett nyanserat sätt beskriva omgivningen. :)
Monday, March 26, 2007
Day off? Whaddya mean "day off"???
I have a day off. This due to me having vacation days that I haven't been able to spend yet and will have to portion them out before the end of April, so they don't suddenly disappear.
So, a day off. But WHAT TO DO? I have 1,746 things that NEEDS doing, I have about 3-4 things that I WANT to do. Funnily enough none of the 1,746 things match the 3-4 things...
Well, I'll do something, I guess. Not too much though :)
So, a day off. But WHAT TO DO? I have 1,746 things that NEEDS doing, I have about 3-4 things that I WANT to do. Funnily enough none of the 1,746 things match the 3-4 things...
Well, I'll do something, I guess. Not too much though :)
Friday, March 23, 2007
The HOFF!
What can I say? I haven't seen it before, but... Pure genius!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The New Style - Content 360 nominees announced
Well, if you want to have a look at what might be coming to your mobile television or your enchanced television or your webservices in the near future, show up at the (fairly entertaining) pitching sessions at the Content 360 Awards in Cannes in just under a month. They are a part of the MIPTV feat MILIA 2007, and are a cooperation between the BBC, KBS, National Film Board of Canada and Ogilvy (strangely enough), to get new and entertaining content to different genres and platforms.
Loads and loads of people sent in their entries, and now the nominees have been announced - find them here.
The most entertaining IMO? Probably "The Club for Weird and Disgusting Sports" by compatriot Carita Forsgren - sounds like a hit in the making :)
Loads and loads of people sent in their entries, and now the nominees have been announced - find them here.
The most entertaining IMO? Probably "The Club for Weird and Disgusting Sports" by compatriot Carita Forsgren - sounds like a hit in the making :)
Monday, March 19, 2007
Joost the next generation
The more I test (or watch, rather) Joost, the more I would like it to be:
- HD quality
- loadsa more content
- equipped with a much more advance GUI and possiblities to program / record / whatever
- have a lot of funky widgets (the kind that you use twice a year but are really essential to have)
and all sorts of other stuff. With that, I'd be a happier person. At least until I find something else to bitch about.
* * *
Last ice-fishing expedition yesterday was a success (as in "we didn't go through the ice and drown"), yet still a failure (as in "the bloody fish eluded us while the grandpa sitting 20 meters from us was hauling fish after fish")
Well, season's over now, so next time it'll be with some other, more familiar gear.
Our non-existant fishing luck might have something to do with our bait, as the maggotts had somehow died during the night. Quite frankly, were I a fish I wouldn't eat those either :)
* * *
Election day yesterday in Finland. My candidate did not win, but it was fairly close. And no, despite all the results from the "test-which-candidate-thinks-like-you" web tests, I did not vote for the communist party.
* * *
- HD quality
- loadsa more content
- equipped with a much more advance GUI and possiblities to program / record / whatever
- have a lot of funky widgets (the kind that you use twice a year but are really essential to have)
and all sorts of other stuff. With that, I'd be a happier person. At least until I find something else to bitch about.
* * *
Last ice-fishing expedition yesterday was a success (as in "we didn't go through the ice and drown"), yet still a failure (as in "the bloody fish eluded us while the grandpa sitting 20 meters from us was hauling fish after fish")
Well, season's over now, so next time it'll be with some other, more familiar gear.
Our non-existant fishing luck might have something to do with our bait, as the maggotts had somehow died during the night. Quite frankly, were I a fish I wouldn't eat those either :)
* * *
Election day yesterday in Finland. My candidate did not win, but it was fairly close. And no, despite all the results from the "test-which-candidate-thinks-like-you" web tests, I did not vote for the communist party.
* * *
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Beautiful art!
Have a look at this, a most excellent thing to do with your spare time - paint paintings on the back windows of dusty cars! And nice ones, at that!
Monday, March 12, 2007
Heh
A Very Important Message (in Swedish though)... a prime example of stunning journalism!
Babelgum, the new Joost (even though there IS no Joost on the market yet :)
Hi ho Silver!
Funny thing, that. As soon as someone comes up with something, someone else does as well. Just have a look at Babelgum, a service now in Betatesting (just like Joost), that is set to "blend the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the Internet" (just like Joost), offering 2cutting-edge peer-to-peer technology to stream video to your PC safely and efficiently at near-TV resolution" (just like Joost) and lost of other stuff (just like Joost).
As I'm not (yet) betatesting Babelgum, I can't comment on the service itself, but William Cooper over at informitv is testing both, and has a pretty good review here. By the looks of it, what the consumer would REALLY like is a blend of the two. Which is about as likely to happen as a sudden and everlasting peace in the Middle East, or some such thing.
Well, as a future consumer of TV over broadband, I'll just say that the more people are working on getting these things to work better and better, with niftier and niftier widgets and GUI:s, the better. Keep'em coming!
Funny thing, that. As soon as someone comes up with something, someone else does as well. Just have a look at Babelgum, a service now in Betatesting (just like Joost), that is set to "blend the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the Internet" (just like Joost), offering 2cutting-edge peer-to-peer technology to stream video to your PC safely and efficiently at near-TV resolution" (just like Joost) and lost of other stuff (just like Joost).
As I'm not (yet) betatesting Babelgum, I can't comment on the service itself, but William Cooper over at informitv is testing both, and has a pretty good review here. By the looks of it, what the consumer would REALLY like is a blend of the two. Which is about as likely to happen as a sudden and everlasting peace in the Middle East, or some such thing.
Well, as a future consumer of TV over broadband, I'll just say that the more people are working on getting these things to work better and better, with niftier and niftier widgets and GUI:s, the better. Keep'em coming!
Friday, March 09, 2007
Bonk OIF! It's Friday!
What to do over the weekend?
I'll try to come up with a really good idea for a tv format. Otherwise I'll have nothing to pitch during format pitching session on Sunday - first one, might just be fun :)
Off now, since nothing interesting is going on in the field of interactive and cross media television (just a bunch of same-old, same-old... I wonder when everyone involved is going to tire of hypeing new stuff every bloody day, without much substance? Soon, hopefully...)
Also, the pilot for The Space Trainees is soon to be finished. Well happy with that, it's been a long process. Now, let's hope everyone bites!!
I'll try to come up with a really good idea for a tv format. Otherwise I'll have nothing to pitch during format pitching session on Sunday - first one, might just be fun :)
Off now, since nothing interesting is going on in the field of interactive and cross media television (just a bunch of same-old, same-old... I wonder when everyone involved is going to tire of hypeing new stuff every bloody day, without much substance? Soon, hopefully...)
Also, the pilot for The Space Trainees is soon to be finished. Well happy with that, it's been a long process. Now, let's hope everyone bites!!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Heads up! Book you Finland-flights NOW!
Short ad here :)
Anyone interested in the creation of interactive and cross media, the development process, the testing and all aspects of it - book up the end of May in you calendars already. And book a flight to Vaasa, Finland, as we are hosting a conference on just those things here at MediaCity.
Speakers will include Dr William Cooper from informitv, Christian Fonnesbech from Congin, Frank Alsema of 4xM and the academic Konstantinos Chorianopoulus from EuroITV and UITV.INFO.
Should be interesting, and there will be a couple of wicked parties thrown in as well :)
Welcome!
Anyone interested in the creation of interactive and cross media, the development process, the testing and all aspects of it - book up the end of May in you calendars already. And book a flight to Vaasa, Finland, as we are hosting a conference on just those things here at MediaCity.
Speakers will include Dr William Cooper from informitv, Christian Fonnesbech from Congin, Frank Alsema of 4xM and the academic Konstantinos Chorianopoulus from EuroITV and UITV.INFO.
Should be interesting, and there will be a couple of wicked parties thrown in as well :)
Welcome!
Etiketter:
conference,
development,
interactive television,
interactivity
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Joost again...
Just a quick note - hats off to the guys at Joost.
Not so much because it would be the best running thing with streaming media over the internet or anything like that (because it's not, even though it IS quite nifty and nice).
Nah, hats off because they manage to do it all over again. With Skype, their last venture, the buzz and the hype was building on itself, a prime example of viral marketing. With Joost, they've managed to do it again. Lots of people are talking about Joost, lots of people are writing about it, lots of people know someone who is betatesting it and have heard good things about it... and the hype keeps on growing.
With Skype, we customers got a wonderful communicating tool, and the guys at Skype got billions of dollars for it. Win-win-situation, no? Hope the same goes for Joost :)
Not so much because it would be the best running thing with streaming media over the internet or anything like that (because it's not, even though it IS quite nifty and nice).
Nah, hats off because they manage to do it all over again. With Skype, their last venture, the buzz and the hype was building on itself, a prime example of viral marketing. With Joost, they've managed to do it again. Lots of people are talking about Joost, lots of people are writing about it, lots of people know someone who is betatesting it and have heard good things about it... and the hype keeps on growing.
With Skype, we customers got a wonderful communicating tool, and the guys at Skype got billions of dollars for it. Win-win-situation, no? Hope the same goes for Joost :)
Monday, March 05, 2007
Betatesting Joost
Started beta-testing Joost today. First impressions:
- a lot like what I would expect from a well founded IPTV venture
- slightly dodgy on the picture quality, most probably something that will improve. Still way better than other competitors out there.
- EPG needs some working on, suggestions, reviews, ratings etc should help the viewer more
- good feel of the service, nice layout, well constructed as a whole
- some really nice widgets, but I'm sure there'll be lots more around soon
Will look forward to testing it a lot more! As of now it gets the thumbs up, definitely. Let's wait and see what happens.. :)
- a lot like what I would expect from a well founded IPTV venture
- slightly dodgy on the picture quality, most probably something that will improve. Still way better than other competitors out there.
- EPG needs some working on, suggestions, reviews, ratings etc should help the viewer more
- good feel of the service, nice layout, well constructed as a whole
- some really nice widgets, but I'm sure there'll be lots more around soon
Will look forward to testing it a lot more! As of now it gets the thumbs up, definitely. Let's wait and see what happens.. :)
Vacations r00lez ok
I really like my job. It's entertaining, fulfilling, gives lots of space for creativity and for coming up with new and interesting ideas. I get to travel, meet interesting people, work together with dedicated colleagues, generally have a pretty good time.
Even so, it's nice to have some time off now and then :)
Below, some pictures from the short vacation - from top down:
a) when it's steep, it's steep!
b) Snow is nice, especially a four-backed snow horse
c) The road stretches ever onwards
d) just a nice tree :)
Even so, it's nice to have some time off now and then :)
Below, some pictures from the short vacation - from top down:
a) when it's steep, it's steep!
b) Snow is nice, especially a four-backed snow horse
c) The road stretches ever onwards
d) just a nice tree :)
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