Cartoon: Friends, friends, I need some friends…

From the desk of admin ·August 31, 2007 at 3:58 pm · Filed under Cartoon, Humourous

I need some new friends. Where can I find them.

A cartoon from Dave Walker of We Blog Cartoons.

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Tags: Cartoon, Dave Walker, Cartoon Blog, Monday Morning, Administration

[tags]Administration Cartoon, Dave Walker, Cartoon Blog, Monday Morning [/tags]

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Why Do I Blog At My Age? Part 2

From the desk of thunderdragon ·August 31, 2007 at 12:18 pm · Filed under Political Blogging, Uncategorized

In the first post of this series, I wrote about blogging whilst “just” 22. I suggested that there was a pretty much definite positive correlation between age/”life experience” and the “worth” of opinions. In this post, I am going to pick a few holes in that premise. As I mentioned in Part 1.5, Graachi and Matt Sinclair wrote posts replying to it, and picked on the main point I am going to write in this post: that age is not everything.

I started making this argument in the conclusion of the first post in this series, where I said:

Nevertheless, young people are the future of this country and of the world. Our opinions do deserve to be taken seriously, even with some adjustments. I blog, even though I am just 22, because I think that the voice of my age group does need to be heard. We see the world in a different way to generations before us.

Not only does the voice of my generation need to be heard, it needs to be taken seriously.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Time for a Radical Change?

From the desk of garbo ·August 31, 2007 at 10:54 am · Filed under Politics Decoded, Uncategorized

We are a fickle lot, the electorate - but not in the way you might think. When it comes to changing our mind about issues and then blaming the government for taking a stance we no longer support we are as fickle as can be. Take Iraq - back in 2003 there was mass support for the war (though also those who opposed it, granted). Now it is in the same league as admitting you’re a complete loon to saying you think Iraq has been a good idea. Or the NHS - we all moan about it and say how terrible it is, but you are risking a public lynch mob if you suggest privatising it. Yet we, as an electorate, are amazingly conservative (will a little c, of course) when it comes to voting out a government. In fact, we have only done it once in 28 years! So why is this? Read the rest of this entry »

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Sensible Safety - Dull, Dull, Dull?

From the desk of health-safety ·August 30, 2007 at 11:01 pm · Filed under Health and Safety, Uncategorized

Further ramblings on health and safety from a H&S professional.

“Sensible”. It’s not a word that inspires the heart to beat faster is it? It reminds us of the shoes we had to wear to school and the boring kid in the class that our parents always wished we could be a bit more like. “That Rodney, he’s such a sensible boy”. My dictionary says it means “judicious, moderate and practical”. I think it just means dull, dull and dull. However on the next line it gives an alternative meaning – “aware, alive to (a thing or idea)”. Now that’s more like it.

So let’s not think of dull, dull, dull safety. Let’s think of being alive to safety, of being aware of it in our lives – not as an obstacle but as an enabler. When applied properly (Oh OK, sensibly) health and safety assessment shouldn’t be a barrier, it should be a tool towards a better, healthier, safer way of life and of work. It should stop people getting hurt unnecessarily, but not stop them having fun. It should reduce risk but not remove it. Life without risk would indeed be dull, dull and dull. Read the rest of this entry »

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Why Do I Blog At My Age? Part 1.5

From the desk of thunderdragon ·August 30, 2007 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Political Blogging, Uncategorized

This isn’t really the next post in the series [hence the “1.5″] but primarily to point to a couple of replies to my first post. First, there is this very well thought out post from Graachi, who very nicely refers to me as “one of the rising stars of conservative blogging”, and says:

It isn’t merely the quantity of experience that can furnish someone with an aid to understanding politics, but also the quality of that experience. Knowledge and experience are related but they are not necessarily equivalent. To take a simple example there are plenty of seventy year olds who have less understanding than I do of economics, the science of a changing situation than I do, partly because they have never studied calculus. There will be plenty of 18 year olds with a better understanding than mine because they studied economics for longer than I did. It is not merely experience but the type of experience that matters as to whether you understand politics.

Matthew Sinclair also has this to say:

Thunderdragon posts to the Wardman Wire his explanation of why, despite being just 22, he has taken up political blogging.
I had to do a bit of a double-take. “Just” 22?
I started blogging at that age and didn’t consider myself young at all. Thunderdragon is old enough to be not just a graduate but a postgraduate.

That was actually my first response when Matt Wardman first proposed the topic as well.

Both of the posts linked to above - Graachi’s and Matt’s - are very much worth reading. Also, very cleverly, they have both picked up on what is to the general thrust of the real Part 2 in this series, which I hope to be posting tomorrow morning [it was going to be today, but then I broke my glasses].

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How Do You Watch Yours?

From the desk of Mike Rouse ·August 30, 2007 at 6:02 pm · Filed under Media, Not a Number

I am referring to televsion, but my question should perhaps be ‘where do you watch the stuff you want to watch?‘ because the concept of television has changed in recent times. Nobody just sits down and watches television any more, they sit and pick something they want to watch. The old style was watching whatever was on, but now you can choose what’s on and when. In my last post I touched on this change and how the likes of Sky Plus has led a cultural change in the demand for televisual services and contributed to the start of the new web telly set-top-box market. But what about video on the internet? If it’s getting easier to pump on demand content down to a television will people still want to sit in front of a computer to watch video or slump in the armchair? I know which I would prefer.

The Rise and Rise of Flash Video

In the last couple of years Flash has begun dominating the online video market. It’s cross-platform and means producers can make fantastic media players for their website that gives them so much more interaction with their users. Compare that to Windows Media, languishing in second place with about 87% of the online market. You can’t customise the player, but it’s a lot cheaper.

Flash also represents the way that online video through a browser will evolve. Now that longer videos and feature films can be pumped to a television set the producers can focus on alternative delivery with Flash.

If your viewer is watching your video through a browser they’re not there to kick back and watch a 30 or 60 minute interview. Chances are that they are there for a few minutes of laughter or to find out some information, perhaps on something like how to make an omelette or to see what a coveted gagdet is actually like. That’s where YouTube has been very successful. But, there’s more incentive for producers than just being able to deliver a video. Flash opens doors both ways - there’s feedback stars, chapter points and so much more that can be entered into a Flash video that further gives the desktop user what they want, when they want it, but also giving the producer vital feedback on their video.

For an example of an excellent implementation of Flash video check here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

Flash for Desktop, Windows Media for TV?

It looks set that Flash will continue to dominate the browser-based market and there will perhaps be more emphasis of associating data to the video, resulting in the browser-based web becoming the place for video as information with the set-top-box market becoming the place for video as entertainment.

The Broadcasters

BBC and 4 On Demand have both opted for a Windows Media based system. Indeed, so has 18 Doughty Street where I act as Head of Technology. We, and I imagine it is the same for the beeb and Channel 4, are aiming firmly at the set-top-box market. However, we will not abandon the browser-based market, indeed we will embrace it and I suspect the other broadcasters will do the same. Within a year when you tune into 18 Doughty Street through a television you will have a slightly different experience than if you watch from your browser. Your television version will allow you to sit back and enjoy the show where the computer version will allow you to jump around content and interact with us in many more ways.

Join Me Next Time…

In my next post for the Wardman Wire I want to look at the citizen journalist revolution. Does the point and shoot generation pose a threat to broadcasters and professional producers? Your comments and thoughts on today’s post are very welcome and I hope you can join me, Mike Rouse, next time.

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Olympic Role model or British Embarrassment

From the desk of garbo ·August 30, 2007 at 4:39 pm · Filed under Politics Decoded, Uncategorized

Until yesterday you probably hadn’t heard of Christine Ohuruogu – I certainly hadn’t. It may be that you still haven’t! Christine Ohuruogu is our first female athlete to win a gold medal in a sprint track and field event for so many years hardly anyone can remember. Woo and yay for her – it is about time Britain had a female role model to look up to in the extra-ordinarily competitive world of sprinting. Only Paula Radcliffe can claim to have had any success in recent years for the female team (though the men aren’t doing much better – in fact this year they are doing worse). So let’s build her up and get the 2012 meddle haul up based upon success stories like Christine. Only there is a small problem… Read the rest of this entry »

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