Filed under: Photos, Media, Technology
The Future of Web Apps Summit.
why buck a trend at a geek fest?
everyone else is blogging here, so here’s my quick notes to self:
Filed under: Media, Technology
Channel 4 have ditched their clunky red button interactive TV service that supports some broadcasts like Big Brother. Some might be shocked by this but, if the truth be told, it makes sense. It’s a bold move that apparently flies in the face of interactive TV “progress” but look at the underlying factors and you’ll see it’s actually a very wise decision. The red button service that Channel 4 offered was only ever delivered over the sky platform, where the initial data associated with the interactive TV service had to be transmitted as part of the broadcast stream via satellite. Over satellite, this broadcast stream bandwidth is very limited and, as you’ve probably seen, results in a very slow interactive experience. Once the base interactive TV application had been loaded, additional data could be retrieved via a sluggish 28k modem. All in all a rather painful user experience. And, believe me, unless you are following a “template” like the i-Ad format (the red button feature for interactive TV adverts, which C4 are keeping) developing for the platform was an even more tedious process! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the driving force behind Channel 4’s decision were their programme producers. When I left Endemol they were struggling to develop interactive TV applications - it simply did not fit into the way TV is produced. These applications require defining and rigorous testing, whereas TV production is a much more fluid process - with concepts potentially changing completely at the 11th hour. Besides, SMS voting is much easier to shoe-horn into a TV concept as a viable revenue stream.
So, step aside clunky satellite interactive TV and make room for TV delivered via a fast broadband connection. The real interactive TV experience is when you don’t even notice you are “interacting” - where viewing is no longer passive but your involvement (like choosing what to watch, whether live or achived) is very much part of the TV experience. Whether you call it internet TV, broadband TV, IPTV or Video On Demand, the underlying concepts are essentially the same. And Homechoice is already there.
As mentioned before I’m keen to see how the areas of TV content, broadband and search technologies eventually come together. I’m sure it won’t be a clean race.
Filed under: Media, Technology
Now then, I don’t like it when blogs just re-hash speculation but this one is just too big not to comment on. I’ve just heard on the grapevine that BT *might* be considering making a bid for ITV. Buying such an established UK content provider would certainly realign BT against competition from Homechoice, BSkyB and ntl in this emerging market.
With last week’s news that Sky will be using Microsoft’s Windows Media Center to deliver its forthcoming Sky By Broadband service and Google announcing a new video store, some interesting areas in technology and media are finally starting to come together. It looks like the big players are jostling for starting positions in the race to realise the much heralded interplay of TV content, broadband and search technologies in the UK.
So - who’s next?
Filed under: Media, Technology
In relation to my previous post, I’ve just found an article from the man that started whole Web 2.0 buzz - he’s saying much the same as me. Only better.
Filed under: Media, Technology
In the wake of Bill Gate’s media spin last week, Microsoft announces a “strategic shift”. The new services will be called Windows Live and Office Live, and Mr Gates said they were “a revolution in how we think about software”.
Hmm. Forgive me but haven’t we all been using applications “online and on demand” for a while now? To unashamedly use a meme that’s been bashed about for the last year or so - it’s all about this “Web 2.0” stuff, innit?
Web services like Flickr, Writely, inetWord and even MSExchange all offer feature rich applications as “online and on demand” software. And with broadband use becoming increasingly prolific, the thin-client model is now a feasible direction for certain applications. I can see that embedded advertising within these applications is a way to make money - particularly for the likes of Microsoft. But I guarantee the developer community will quickly find a way to outrun the displaying of these embedded adverts.
Either way - is this the beginning of the end for CD installed software? Maybe one day even our operating systems will be online…
Filed under: Media, Technology
Sky have apparently seen the light and are considering making a bid for Video Networks - the owners of Homechoice. They say they are not for sale and, of course, it is all rumours but I’d say it was inevitable that a big player such as Sky makes a move on these guys at some point. And what with Sky going on a bit of a spending spree right now, you know it makes sense. Sky certainly appear to be angling towards IPTV - having bought broadband provider EasyNet and a few specialist content providers in recent weeks. I’ve been ranting about Homechoice for a while now and think their technology is second to none. To me it’s true interactive TV - you don’t even notice it happening - the interactivity just happens as part of the viewing experience. Not like Sky’s slow and rather hotch-potch combo of a piddly modem and satellite data feed. Does this mean the technology might finally reach further than the 15,000 Londoners currently subscribing to Homechoice? At the moment the cost of installing digital exchanges required to provide the kind of IPTV you see with Homechoice is preventing its growth but perhaps Sky’s credibility and massive subscriber base will help prolificate the reach of this technology beyond the M25. And it might just keep BT’s move into IPTV at bay too. However, one of the reasons I like Homechoice (technology aside) is the simple fact it’s not Sky. I guess Homechoice is hardly a little guy either - with some heavyweight shareholders such as Microsoft’s Chris Larson, Time Warner, Sony and Disney - but it did feel as if Homechoice was one of the last great hopes in the fight against the Murdoch media empire.
Filed under: Science, London, Technology
Considering where I am working right now, I haven’t seen enough of the local area during lunch breaks and so on. But when I do, I’m happy to have dragged myself away from the usual half hour of joy - slowly dribbling bits of sandwich between the keys. Walking in from a bright Spring afternoon, this place - with its perspex tables, neon lights, beeps, whirls and blips - was all a bit disorientating but then this is the future after all (and maybe that’s how I’ll feel at eighty years old). And what a future it is. I am going there more often. The Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum that is - not the future. Although you never know…
Filed under: Photos, Friends, Travel, London, Technology, Media, Random
this way please… go check it out, fred’s been busy.
EDIT: more here
Filed under: Media, Technology, Random
with a certain magazine deciding to strip the most important thing in the world of its capital “i”, it’s good to see some people are sticking to their guns. i mean - these things are important!
Filed under: Technology, Random
i was greeted this morning by a “hacked” homepage. strange - the kid(s) behind this bizarre defacement even logged the hack. very strange. logging it like that makes it appear like a
white hat attack but i can’t help feel it’s more akin to kids scribbling their names on the back of school bus seats with a marker pen.
Filed under: Technology, Random
now we’re talking. mobile photos straight to this page right here… project in progress. watch this space.
oh - and my new usb pen drive rocks. i really am turning into a geek now.
Filed under: London, Media, Technology, Random
new webcam installed (from the endemol offices)…
Filed under: Technology
a blog on a friday night? Yeah, well, we’re in the depths of winter, it’s pissing down outside and i’m saving myself for a bike ride tomorrow. Anyway - i just stumbled across this amazingly simple idea for a site ยป dodgeit.com - a great way to avoid having to reveal your email address when required for registrations that inevitably gets passed on to spam lists. i imagine the traffic to this site will shoot up beyond affordability but for now it’s a url worth remembering. plus it’s fun reading other people’s emails.
Filed under: Technology
it looks like somebody has written an inheritable framework for web controls that produce xhtml 1.0 strict compliant code. excellent! it’s only in beta but certainly a step in the right direction. they say they won’t be releasing source code, so i wonder how much they’ll be charging?
Filed under: Technology
i went to the .net roadshow on wednesday and was suitably sold to by microsoft geeks. the new .net framework actually looks like a great development platform and visual studio is a rather nice coding environment. i just couldn’t get my head around microsoft’s claim to enable “cross-platform delivery”. yeah right - as long as it’s a microsoft platform.
and the code it spits out - ergh! it is such a shame - server side controls and the idea of coding behind pages are the best ideas to come out of .net and are on the path of enlightenment to separating logic from presentation (in much the same way as jakarta’s mvc framework that i’ve gotten so used to in struts). but the html code that things like asp:form tags spew out is ridiculous. microsoft sits on the w3c standards board and built .net from scratch but still can’t develop these controls to output valid html (let alone xhtml)! i guess this same company can’t build a compliant web page on their own site either so at least they’re consistent.
it looks like i’m going to have to spend a lot of unnecessary time overriding all server side controls using customized Render() methods to output what i want. not ideal. with any luck microsoft will listen to the development community and change this annoying “feature”.
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