Links for 2007-01-25
- Nicholas Carr's written another one of those posts in which you sort of sit there and look at the world and its changes and you sort of heave your shoulders and sigh I feel guilty for getting stroppy with the chap, but's I can't help thinking that being British, watching the culture calmly and dropping the odd comment that indicates you're resistant to change is a very good way to look intelligent without the hard work of actually thinking
- Joel Veitch and Seven Seconds of Love have been given a pay-out from Coca-Cola after the multinational giant ripped off their song and video Tremendously good news. It's really satisfying to see personal non-corporate creativity win out in these environments against all the odds.
- Rasmus Bjork has been exploring why aliens haven't found us - his conclusion is that it's because it would take them billions of years to do so Rather spuriously, he seems to have decided that said aliens would send eight probes which would each subsequently break into an additional eight probes. My guess is that if they did it with more probes it might take less time...
- The Daedalus Project talks about the use of addiction metaphors in relation to gaming I'm definitely guilty of this, although I don't see too much difference between arguing that it is possible to become addicted to gaming and that it is possible to be addicted to gambling. But the point is taken and well-meant...
- Nick Yee writes about MMORPG 'addiction' and correlated behaviour and feeling with behaviour that an actual addictive substance might generate... "The claims that MMORPGs are completely healthy or completely addictive are both extreme to the point of absurdity, and are not supported by the empirical data provided"
- Andy Baio's written a great post about piracy and the Oscars and the effect of the piracy-free DVDs sent to academy members... The general conclusion I get from this survey and from friends in the industry is that the companies who insist on copy protected DVDs ended up with Academy members unable to watch the films and subsequently not winning awards...
- Ofcom are throwing a wobbly at the BBC's download plans and this is one time I'm very definitely on the BBC's side We have to face it, the role of the 'broadcaster' in the distribution of television is on the decline as other methods come into play. Radio's safe. TV's changing and on demand will get larger. Hobbling the BBC in this area is the kiss of death to the org
- Flickr's introduced the concept of machine tags for everyone to start playing with Ooh. Classy. Nice. All kinds of things can be built off the back of this. I'm just starting to get my head around the possibilities, although it's probably worth noting that I'm not necessarily sufficiently qualified to get the best view...
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
"For this reason it has recommended that the BBC's on-demand service reduces from 13 weeks the planned amount of time that users could keep downloaded programmes."
How do they plan to that then? More evil DRM?
→ Posted by: Julian Bond at January 25, 2007 8:24 AM
@Julian: The BBC's on-demand video services via the iPlayer have always intended to be DRM-based. Both the executive summary and the 100+ page report note that it will initially be Microsoft Windows-only: I think they should have gone much further than they did in recommending that the BBC pursue a system which doesn't lock in so closely with one provider.
While i think Ofcom have gone too far in some of their recommendations, it's important to remember that everything they say only applies to services coming directly from the licence fee (i.e., at no additional cost). Anything that gets ruled out by the Public Value Test can still be implemented by BBC Worldwide, the Corporation's commercial arm.
→ Posted by: Scott M at January 25, 2007 10:33 AM
I have some common concerns about the medium but think he's wrong because it is about its potential not its current use. Its like saying books are shite becasue of Maeve Binchy and Jeffrey Archer and everyone will end up being isolated. Modularity can be catalysed.
I'm more interested in your notion of 'Being British'. In terms of the media its interesting that the notionally 'national' media has reported the new teaching Britishness classes ignoring the fact that this is true in England but not Scotland.
Education = Devolved
Broadcasting = Reserved
There is complete ignorance of this fact in the 'British' media. Blogs are useful.
Happy Burns Night from www.1820.org.uk
→ Posted by: Gus Abraham at January 25, 2007 10:42 AM
BBC is just a joke.. Their licensing system - How applying for buying their shows to broadcast in other countries needs you to use Internet Explorer - and how they don't answer to serious request.
BBC = a joke.
→ Posted by: Daniel Gr at January 25, 2007 12:03 PM