Like any proud father I was happy to have helped my Institution deliver another batch of ICCT graduates. Yesterday, it was gradutaion day and some of the “class of 2007” are pictured here. Good luck chaps and don’t forget me, particulary when you’re rich.
An interesting article “Why TV on demand insists you use its chosen browser” by Kate Bevan in today’s TechnologyGuardian indicates that it is not only the BBC that has wedded itself to a Microsoft Windows XP/IE/Media Player solution to its Video on Demand (VOD) service. Apparently Channel 4’s 40D service has the same limitations, and I can report first hand that SKY Anytime doesn’t work on Vista either. Apparently it’s all a question of reaching the most users while satisfying the distribution restrictions of the rights holders....
In my pursuit of procrastination (I’m supposed to be writing supplementary [summer resit] examinations) I’ve been through my feeds and am now watching Stephanie Booth’s excellent Google Tech Talk on Localization (which incidentally is a trickier problem than most English speakers realise). Whilst listening, I was following the links to Stephanie’s blog Climb to the Stars and from there to her del.icio.us link collection and discovered a useful tip. She bookmarks links to the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) record for the films that she’s seen and tags them films seen cinema , films seen dvd, etc....
You may have heard about the BBC’s plans to release iPlayer which will allow license fee payers to watch BBC programs on their computers. Unfortunately, the system is targeted at Windows and uses Microsoft Media Player and Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect the content. While the use of some form of DRM to protect the content seems to me eminently sensible (I don’t see how the BBC, which outsources most of its production, could offer any form of Video on Demand (VOD) without protecting the Artistic Property of itself and its partners), the choice of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Media Player and Microsoft DRM does potentially disenfranchise a small but significant minority of computer users....
In a knowing echo to Edward R. Murrow’s indictment of Senator Joe McCarthy (recently immortalized in George Clooney’s film film), Keith Olbermann has used the closing of his eve-of-July 4thMSNBC Countdown program (link includes video) to publicly castigate the current President and Vice President of the United States – suggesting that they both resign. To paraphrase the tag line: “I didn’t vote for him,” [John Wayne referring to JFK] once said, “But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job....