Culture change at the BBC

The recent issue over the BBC and Jonathan Ross and that other guy, Russell Brand or whatever his name is, the one who says "like" too much, has continued to be in the news. So I thought I'd just comment on it (makes a break from the endless tech stuff - sorry PDC and WinHEC conferences back to back means there's a lot of tech going on). Old time readers of my blog will no doubt remember multiple instances that I've said the BBC needs to raise its game....

Monday, 3 November 2008 · 3 min · Paul Smith

Let Viacom know what you're watching

As Google have been forced to hand over the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube. I think it's time to show Viacom that we don't all use YouTube to share "pirate" their crappy (excluding Star Trek which they canned) shows. So I've got a few suggestions, I hope Viacom love looking through my history, they'll see that I enjoy some good World of WarCraft videos now and again....

Thursday, 3 July 2008 · 1 min · Paul Smith

The Daily Mail as reactionary and hate-filled as ever

So for those that don't know how right-wing and reactionary the Daily Mail is check this e-mail that one of their writers sent out. From: rsreply@dwpub.com [mailto:rsreply@dwpub.com] Sent: 13 February 2008 15:57 To: (hidden) Subject: Response Source - Diana Appleyard , Daily Mail (Request for personal case study) PUBLICATION: Daily Mail (Request for personal case study) JOURNALIST: Diana Appleyard (staff) DEADLINE: 14-February-2008 16:00 QUERY: I am urgently looking for anonymous horror stories of people who have employed Eastern European staff, only for them to steal from them, disappear, or have lied about their resident status....

Monday, 25 February 2008 · 2 min · Paul Smith

Katie Melua and good science

Katie Melua in her song Nine Million Bicycles had a bit of bad science in the second verse: We are 12 billion light-years from the edge, That's a guess, no one can ever say it's true, But I know that I will always be with you Anyway, after a tongue-in-cheek article appeared in the Guardian about this she did another cut with some more accurate lyrics: We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe, That's a good estimate with well-defined error bars, And with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you...

Saturday, 31 March 2007 · 1 min · Paul Smith

Signs

Did I ever tell you I thought it was crap? Never thought I'd find someone who could explain why it was crap in just four little images though.

Wednesday, 17 May 2006 · 1 min · Paul Smith

Halo 2 soundtrack volume 2

Released at last... And it's pretty good.... Now got ALL the tracks that I wanted from Halo 2, especially Unforgotten which is a really nice piece. Big thumbs up, been waiting ages for this.

Saturday, 6 May 2006 · 1 min · Paul Smith

Echelon Song what's it about, what are the lyrics?

Back when this post was originally written there was very little information regarding Echelon Song also known as the Song for Voroshilov (refering to Kliment Voroshilov) on the internet, which is why I did a blog entry about it. The song was originally written in 1933 by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov and was about the railway warfare used in the Don from winter 1917 to summer 1918, ending with the Battle for Tsaritsyn where the White Army was defeated....

Monday, 7 November 2005 · 2 min · Paul Smith

Cylons are people too

Back on Caprica before the attack, and sometimes I forget there was a world before the attack, I knew someone, a woman, unlike any other woman I'd ever known. She was unique, beautiful, clever, intensely sensual when she wasn't in my bed, she was in my thoughts. She was a Cylon, and she changed my life in a very real, very fundamental way. In that I have quite literary never stopped thinking about her, because I love her, to this very day I love her, and she looks exactly like you....

Sunday, 25 September 2005 · 1 min · Paul Smith

Two days with the Zen Micro

My sister got her Zen Micro on Monday, after Creative released the new firmware for the device to add MTP/PlaysForSure support that was it, I had to get it - technically speaking it's mine as I paid for it - she's not paying me back until January 2006. Quick to charge up in about 3 hours, I installed the software, installed the latest firmware to update it for MTP support so I didn't need Creative's software, which was promptly removed, I'll let Microsoft handle the software thank you....

Wednesday, 12 January 2005 · 3 min · Paul Smith

iTunes rip off exposed

Well it had to happen eventually. The Office of Fair Trading have passed Apple's iTunes service on to the European Commission on grounds it's ripping off it's UK customers. "We're campaigning for free movement of goods and services in Europe and we'll take on any company, or group of companies, that seek to carve up the market to their benefit." To buy music through iTunes in the UK costs 20% more then in France or Germany....

Saturday, 4 December 2004 · 1 min · Paul Smith