A truth

...one of many...

Most people sped most of their time doing things they wouldn't want to do, in order to be able to spend a little time doing things they want to do.

I'd like to spend a little time doing things I wouldn't really want to do, and a lot of time doing things I want to do.

Now, how to accomplish that?

Facebook, what evil lurks?

Well, having read through a lot of stuff about Facebook and their tracking system Beacon - which basically follows what you do on the Internet (not only what you do on Facebook!) and reports it back to Facebook, the disenchantment with Facebook is gathering pace rapidly over in this corner. I like the idea behind Facebook, and I think it has its uses - notably for finding friends you haven't talked to in ages... but at the same time, as a magazine here in Finland stated - "we've already trivialized love - now with Facebook, we're trivializing friendship."

Fortunately it's pretty easy to block Beacon - just follow this easy guide and you'll be safe. For now.

Skating on the sea...

... sorry for the quality of this clip, but as the only recording equipment I had on me was a Nokia 6630 with a 1.3 Mpix camera, this was the best I could do. Skating on the sea outside of Vasa, ice thickness about 5 cm. Windy but nice!

DVB-H or not DVB-H?

How much should a governmental body regulate the businessworld? That's a question lots of people - and governments and businesses alike - have been asking themselves throughout the ages. With regards to mobile tv, that question is being asked again, as the EU now puts its full (and considerable) weight behind the DVB-H standard for mobile tv broadcast.

This means that all 27 member states of the EU are required to support DVB-H and encourage the standard for mobile television. As can be imagined, the competition is less than excited - Korean standard DMB being one, Qualcomms Mediaflo another.

Still, rumours have it that not everyone is particularly happy with this resolution. BSkyB, for instance, are said to be eager to go with Mediaflo, despite EUs suggestions. So, there we are again - a world of competing standards. Don't you just love it? No, me neither.

To sell a format

Now, the television business is not an easy one. Lots of money moving around, for sure. But to break into that flow of money is more of a challenge.

When selling a television format, most buyers would like to see an episode, or even better, a whole series. They also like ratings and reviews - ratings (if high enough) a lot more than reviews, as a matter of fact.

That's why I lift my hat when reading todays news that Armoza Formats of Israel have sold their format "Revenge of the Geeks" to the US, UK, Holland, Poland and several other territorier, although the series have still to premiere in Israel (which it will do in November). Well done lads - you must've had a great format, and a helluva pitch :)

Now I just have to do that as well... :)

Miro challenging Joost, Babelgum et al

New kid on the block, Miro, is trying to challenge Joost, Babelgum and the rest of the bunch with its slightly different take on things. See. Miro is first of all an Open Source internet television app, formerly known by the much-less-savvy name "Democracy Player" (I mean, that's NOT a selling name, Miro ftw!). It also has some other nifty features, and a whole different look to it.

It's campaining with the actual tagline "Better than Joost" - pointing out that they have 2.500 unrestricted channels, loadsa HD material and are open source. Valid points, all of them.

The thing that makes Miro stand out in a positive (albeit probably fairly illegal) way from the rest of the pack is the possibility to subscribe to RSS-feeds of favourite tv shows. Just grab the RSS feed from somewhere, set up a channel on Miro and the app will take care of the rest, providing you with a new episode every time one is available. For a users guide, check out this CNet article.

My 2 cents would be that Miro will work as a good partner to Joost. It can get to stuff that Joost can't, and it can do it with a minimum of hassle. To just watch something - without really knowing what to be looking for, just killing time - Joost is still better. Also Miro crashed a couple of times on my laptop, whereas Joost has been running faultlessly for the past year - might just be me, but the feeling I get is a little bit unsteady.

Miro - try it out! Just don't get caught :)

This is where you would've seen a picture of a show on Miro, but alas! you only get to see the app itself. Oh joy, oh rapture.

CSI:NY vs Second Life - how did it go?

Well, being situated in Finland I had a bit of a problem catching the CSI:NY program itself, so haven't seen that one. I did, however, log on to Second Life to have a look around, and yes, in that end Electric Sheep made it all work pretty darn well.

Judging by the response from some other people blogging about this, the television version was still mostly a muck-up when it came to the whole cross media shebang - or rather, the fact that 99% of all that is shown on television is fake. So too with regards to what was included about Second Life in yesterdays episode. For a better review from someone who actually watched the show, read this.

What would be good would for the television end of the production chain to start listening to the internet (or in this case, Second Life) end of the chain a little bit more. It is not possible to create a good all-encompassing experience that gives both worlds justice unless you let both parts influence each other to a great enough extent.

For an interview with Anthony Zuiker, creator of the CSI brand and the guy with the idea of going into SL from the start, check this out.

As for viewer ratings, I haven't seen any yet, nor any figures for how many people signed up as Second Lifers yesterday. Will post as soon as I have them.

Well - to sum it up, a nice enough effort. As well, it will continue with new mysteries every month, so hopefully no end to it but a continuing presence in SL. Just get the tv part to work together with it a bit better, please?

Yup, that's a faceless CSI-corpse on the floor, alright.

Ehhehh. Heh.

Sorry, but got to post this. If you have to make an ad for a tv channel about crime, you could do worse than this. And it's a really catchy song as well! :)

Cross media and television, match made in heaven

Tonight on CBS there'll be something pretty nice to look forward to, for all the viewers in the US and all Second Life players worldwide. See, what they're doing is basically widening the CSI:NY brand into Second Life, which at first glance has the definite ability to be awesome. Although there are some who think it really doesn't :)

Tonights episode will feature in and moreover continue in Second Life. Wonder what that'll be like :) . As a first, I have great hopes for this - lets just hope it doesn't run out of steam like, say, The Lost Experience or something suchlike.

This is what I'd like to be doing with my tv projects as well. Anyone got a couple of millions of €€ to give away?


Preview of tonights CSI:NY Second Life extravaganza. Looks nice!

Just to contradict myself a bit - the Bugatti Veyron... mmm...

Heh, saw this in Berlin the other week. And I must admit I'd like to have one. Or two. Or a dozen. Perhaps if they made them run on biogas I could get my conscience to shut up as well? ...or I could just take this version - "Studie" I guess means that it's just a nice model.







Beauty in motion - even when it's not in motion.

The times they are a-changing

Just plugged in my 4Gb smartdrive USB stick, and realized that not so long ago, 4Gb was what you'd be REALLY lucky to fit into a bloody livingroom.


One gigabyte then, one gigabyte now. Old one - MUCH cooler...

I just wish, really really wish, that all the energy spent on not so important things - like updating your Facebook page (yes, you!) and trying to fit more gigas onto smaller space - would be spent on trying to save this bloody planet.

Was in the woods with the kids a couple of days ago - the loud smattering that could be heard were the elk flies hitting our jackets, caps, hair, legs, everywhere. Never seen such an amount of them evil buggers. Four hours later I plucked the last one as it was crawling on my cheek. Now - there were no elk flies here when I was a kid, just the mosquitos. Global warming has brought them to my porch, and I don't like it one bit. Time to do something - I won't take the car ANYWHERE for the rest of this week, and that's that.

Hear, hear! The latest word on Joost.

It's always nice, and a bit annoying, when someone else articulates your own feelings in words in a much better way than you yourself have been able to do. So, it's with a mixture of both that I just read William Coopers article on the new developments over at Joost on his Informitv-pages - read it here - and find that the feeling in the back of my head I've had every time I've opened Joost (or Babelgum for that matter), and the probable reason why I check it out once a week - tops - nowadays, was just exactly what William stated at the end of the article.

As he points out, Joost and its rivals represent a breakthrough when it comes to technical matters, programming, how to use the Net and so on. What they don't represent is a better way of consuming media - at least not a more appealing way. As William says -

"At the moment, [Joost and Babelgum] seem rather sterile. Unlike television, which is constantly appealing to its sense of immediacy through a continuous flow of programming and promotion, these video-on-demand environments are less dynamic. As with many other on-demand systems, there is a sense that the same material will still be there tomorrow, in which case why watch it now?"

Quite so.

Weather is nice, and 50-50

Went out finshing last weekend. Next to no fish, but good beer, a warm sauna and great company made it really worthwhile. And the weather Saturday evening was bloody marvellous. As we rounded a small island we saw this HUGE storm moving towards usrapidly. Luckily enough, it missed us by a mile or so, but the clouds, the rainbows and the lighting was just overwhelming. The only camera I had was on my phone, so the pictures weren't that good, but here are some...









On another note - look out for the next Millionaire! Yes, 2waytraffic, who bought Celador (the production company who owned Who wants to be a Millionaire) are trying their best to cash in on their investment. Their new format is called 50-50, and is essentially a spinoff of the 50-50 lifeline from Millionaire. Contestants play in pairs to to make choices between two possibilities (read more about it here).

The only question I have is - when will the quiz show fad run out of steam? Not now,it seems, as 50-50 has already scored deals in Japan, Greece, Australia and Italy.

Perhaps I should be doing quiz shows as well...

Beware the Facebook

Well, as many MANY others, I find Facebook strangely addicitive. Play along, do lots of idiotic fun stuff, play Travel Quiz and Texas Hold'em... and find old friends!

But is there something else to Facebook than just the face and the book? For a pretty sinister (albeit slightly conspiracy theoryish) look at Facebook, watch this. Nice voice in the voiceover too, meow..

The art of updating infrequently

Well, what can I say. Between working (and working and working) and not working, there doesn't seem to be any time to update this blog with anything remotely associated with regularity.

What new then? The Space Trainees was pitched at EBU Creative Forum in Berlin last week - along with 20-odd other EBU-projects - and there was some interest in the format. Let us hope it'll take off shortly.

On the telecom / media / television side of the world, MIPCOM might be pretty interesting this year. A whole day is dedicated to the hype of the moment, Green TV (television programs with an ecological twist) - I actually heard the pitch for a pretty good format in the genre in Berlin, made by SBS from Australia. It's called Eco House Challenge, and the website can be found here.

Anyone going to Cannes for the MIPCOM and fancy a chat, let me know :)

On another completely different note, have you ever wondered what you're worth? Here is the place to find out. To my dismay, I clocked in at 2.975$... I think I'm more worth than that!

Hacking an iPhone

Well, disturbing news for a lot of people. Happy news for a lot of other people. Telecoms.com reports that a US teenager, George Hotz, spent his entire summer break hacking the iPhone. This he succeeded in doing, trading the hacked iPhone (hacked so that it can be used on any network, not just the ones it is branded for) during the weekend.

Other people and organizations are also working on cracking the iPhone, which means it'll be some nervous times at, for instance, AT&T, the network that the iPhone is supposed to be solely connected to in the US. As many of the potential customers for the iPhone are pretty technologically aware people, changing operator with the help of a cracking software should pose no greater obstacle. We'll see what happens.

What did he trade it for? A Nissan 350Z and three 8GB iPhones :). Well spent summer break, methinks.

Back (once again)

So, summer vacations over, back at work. Traditional autumn-start-of-school-and-daycare-flu grabbing a hold of the family, coughing and wheezing...

Now, preparing a trip to Berlin and the EBU meeting, where we'll be presenting The Space Trainees to lots of people - hope the flu has gone by then!

Also lots of development work to be done. Phew.

And, if you haven't yet signed up to become an owner of a REAL football club (albeit in the lower echelons of British football), do so now :) I've done it, so it can't be all bad. What? Oh.

Mhm, just a heads-up regarding this...

if you are

a) not on vacation,
b) perhaps on vacation, or at work, but do not have anything to do next Tuesday (10th July) at 1300 GMT and
c) you're interested in the future of mobile television,

you could do worse then signing up for this webinar, organised by WeComm. As it

a) features some key persons from BSkyB and Motorola,
b) it's free and
c) it's only 40 minutes long,

I'd say it was a pretty good way to spend that time. You even get to ask you own questions - like "what's it good for anyway?" and stuff like that. :)

Not gonna see me there though, vacation coming up... puuh.

VeohTV tried and tested

Well, as I wrote earlier, I'm starting to feel a little bit like them animals tucked up in cages that they test new make up products on... only difference is, I've signed myself up for all these tests... silly me.

So - betatesting Joost, Babelgum, and now VeohTV. VeohTV differs from the other two in the sense that it's more web-based, which is both good and bad. It has a more webby feeling to it as well - while both Joost and Babelgum are attempting to be IP-television on your computer, VeohTV feels - to me - more like an attempt to be a smooth and easily managed interface to all the content that is on the web. I mean, at the same time as you can watch episodes of Heroes, 24, CSI or Jericho (the latter only if you're US-based though) you can browse sites like YouTube, VideoGoogle or watch WebcamGirls (woohoo!) - i.e. pretty much everything that the web has to offer.

And here then is part of the problem - the web contains quite a lot. So if you're really trying to kill time, you can just start pretty much anything, bare with the (slightly annoying but obligatory) commercials at the beginning of each and any clip (and sometimes the ads are longer than the bloody clip!) and just watch away.

For me, this does not work. As we all know, the web is full of really shite content, which makes VeohTV an interface to more easily get your hands on really shite content. Not something I need. Added to that, the quality is often abysmal. Pixelation is just the first word, I could come up with a dozen more I think.

VeohTV prides itself on having a funky recommendation feature - it logs what you watch and then recommends stuff that you might want to watch based on that information. Still, for me, as there's so much crap there and I simply click on a couple of links to see what they really are, quickly shutting them down after not liking what I saw, the recommendations get a bit skewed. I believe this could be helped if I could be bothered to ass different clips to my favourites etc, basically showing what I like, but honestly - I can't be bothered.

Some good things though - most clips have a short summary in the title, which helps a lot. The interface is easy to understand and even easier to use - good usability there!

For my money though, so far, it's Joost who's the leader in the IP based television service. Or, if you're feeling like being on the shady side of the law, perhaps Joox instead?

Heh

Me being this book aint too far from the truth, really:

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed
quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it
seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic
struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal
that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian
theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust
in zoo animals.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.