February 21, 2008
Familiar?
So there I am, looking through the BBC website, trying to get a feel for what they might want to commission next, when I come across this promo pic for Hotel Babylon:
And I think, hang on, isn't that all the Dulux bumpers from Ugly Betty condensed into one photo?
Thankfully, for the one avid reader, Tom Is Entering A Creative Time. So this should mean lots more links to nonsense, and a lot less trying to summarise my life through facebook status updates. Probably.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Propware
Today's latest neologism:
'Propware' is software bought by an amateur to make them feel like a professional, even though the professionals may not actually use it.
e.g. is Final Draft propware, or do real scriptwriters still use Word?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 06:40 PM | Comments (1)
September 03, 2007
It's all a question of viewpoint
Like many old hands in the 'new' media industry, I've spent a long time bashing my head against the brick wall of "TV is the one true way". Be it technical, editorial or strategy, there are some who can't see how quickly the world is changing. And that the foundations on which they base their assumptions are dogma or history rather than truth.
Today, for example, I'm going to have an argument with someone about why you don't have to do a full Online edit for a programme that's only going to be shown on the web. As far as I can tell, they view the web as an inferior technology and we're trying to get away with not meeting broadcast standards. Whereas, in truth, the reason we don't need it is because PC Monitors will reliably display the whole picture area, can display 100% white without blowing the transmitter, and can deal with 1-pixel horizontal lines, unlike that crappy 1960s TV technology.
This wierd bias is everywhere in TV. I'm about to finalise the delivery of some Flash animations as video files, and the only way to do this reliably is to export the Flash frame-by-frame and import into an edit suite before laying on the audio again. But while researching the mechanism I found this little gem in the Avid Xpress DV Editing manual from 2003:
Traditionally, analog NTSC signals have always used non-square pixels, where the pixels were more tall than wide. It was not until computer-based video arrived in the 1980 that NTSC signals were recorded with square pixels. This was because computers used square pixels, and working with non-square pixels and playing a visibly correct image was beyond the technology of the day. Today, many graphics and animation programs, including Adobe Photoshop, continue to use the square pixel format
I love the 'continue to use'. Like one day we'll see the error of our ways...
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)
August 25, 2007
(doomp doomp) This is a Sign of the Times...
The internet has come a long long way since i frist arrived on it in 1994.
I recently saw an old university friend joining a new Facebook group Those who have innappropriate thoughts about children's TV presenters.
Aside from the poor spelling, I thought 'oh here we go again'. Endless gymnastic fantasies about Sarah-Jane from Tikabilla etc.
And it was full of bloody WOMEN!
Discussing Chris from Doodle Do, Sid who does the CBBC links, that berk from Boogie Beebies - even Archie from Balamory.
This place is not what it was, you know!
Posted by Tom Dolan at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2007
Quicker, faster
Ive often been fascinated by the compacting of language through technology. We seem to be going through a redefinition of language, and the nuance conveyed by very sparse language, that would have given the Grimm Brothers the heebie-geebies.
Of course, we had the Guardian SMS poetry competition.
Then there was the BBC Films Site with its Haiku reviews.
And now this:
Facebook | I bummed Jessica Rabbit and want to explain in 4 words my experience.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2007
The Great Con(vergence)
I am, as they say, time poor. Particularly when it comes to learning. Learning a new thing tends to find its way to the top of my tree because it fits with my life, not because it's the thing I most want to do. Learning to read chinese got along a lot further than Lev Manovitch's "The Language of New Media" mainly because one could be carried around 30 Flash cards at a time and read while standing up on the tube. Lev's enormous hardback isn't so Central-line-cram-at-8:15-friendly.
But sometimes there are things I want to learn so badly that I need to find a way to make them fit in with the time I have got to myself.
Pro Tools is the latest.
Now this is a pretty complex bit of software, with a million hidden features, some non-intuitive workflows and PDF manuals FAR too big to print.
But Digidesign, being the sensible people they are, provide numpties like me with a helpful DVD that gets you going on how to use the key features. And it's a damn good one.
Except to the people who surround me during any time the TV can be on and I am allowed to be stationary.
"This is boring, I want to watch Peppa Pig" daisy was chanting within four minutes. Vicky's face was trying to be loyal, but wasn't far behind.
I know, I thought, I have my sexy new N95 - I'll convert it to watch on that on the train. What a great way to be geeky, learn this new software, and show off a gadget at the same time.
So here is the process:
1) Download Handbrake after reading diveintomark's instructions.
2) Try and reinterpret diveintomark's instructions for the updated interface.
3) Insert DVD, choose Title4, chapters 1-50, enter all the settings needed for the phone.
4) Press 'process'.
5) Go and do something else for about an hour.
6) Come back and see it's converted 1h40 of DVD to MPEG4 already. Be impressed.
7) Find out it's only converted the first 1m34s chapter
8) Try again, unchecking the 'add chapter markers' setting in case.
9) Wait.
10) Sigh that it's still only converted the first chapter.
11) Try only converting chapters 1 to 10 in case that's too much.
12) Wait.
13) Sigh more loudly, attracting attention of spouse who is now seriously doubting my 'this will only take ten minutes', as it once again only converts first chapter.
14) Try 2 to 10 in case there is a glitch in the first one for some reason.
15) Give up sighing, start swearing, as it only converts chapter 2
16) Remember there was a dodgy bit on the disk when watching on TV, pick chapter at random and start encoding from there.
17) Get glass of wine, as spouse has now given up and gone to bed.
18) Realise excitedly that it's working.
19) Try to find a place in the DVD to re-encode from, realise that chapter 17 was the point it got interesting anyway, so you needn't have aborted.
20) Turn all the original settings back.
21) Ignore all common sense that would say this is going to take over two hours and decide to stay up reading in bed and wait for it.
22) Mess around pointlessly on the net instead, blogging increasingly drunkenly
23) Spend last two minutes of encode just *wishing* the time away.
24) Brace yourself for disappointment, but instead watch video excitedly, waking up wife in process.
25) Connect mac and N95 with USB cable, select "mass storage" mode from N95 menu that appears
26) Be told that the memory card has files in use and so can't be opened in this mode.
27) Turn off all apps, connect again.
28) Get same message, wonder if you can be arsed to uninstall Shozu which must be the thing running the background.
29) Try moving all of the messaging data store back into the phone in case.
30) Try again - without success.
31) Move the messaging data store back onto the 2GB memory card.
32) Go and open another bottle of wine, attempt to bluetooth the 236MB file.
33) Get 'not enough memory' message, as all bluetooth data is stored in phone memory first, even though it appears within 'messaging' app, which points to the memory card. Gahhhhhhhh!
34) Go and get work laptop from rucksack and power up
35) Turn on ftp server on mac in System Preferences
36) Browse to file and start download to PC.
37) Drink another glass of wine, piss around on net more.
38) Frantically run round for power cable for laptop in pants as it's about to die.
39) Check file on PC, disturbing wife once again.
40) Connect N95 to PC, again using mass storage mode as PC drivers are a bit smart about this.
41) See steps 25ff
42) Give up and upload it to the phone using PC suite
43) Enrapt, watch video on phone.
44) Curse once again as you realise that RealPlayer on the N95 doesn't support chapter markers so you have 1h40 of video to find your way around at random.
45) Remember you have big important meeting tomorrow and should have been asleep probably nearly two hours ago.
46) Go to sleep exasperated but happy.
Real pros will also add step 47) Be woken up by teething child 90 minutes later and spend rest of night being cried at or poked in the face while trying to get sleep.
So that's it kids, your easy guide to having all your favourite content on the move with you! How can this not catch on like wildfire - all the analysts say it will!
Posted by Tom Dolan at 08:53 PM | Comments (2)
March 14, 2007
A Curious Day
Take your pick.
BBC Jam* is soon to be no more.
But shortly after that it could be far far better. And easier.
Possibly.
Weirdly, this hiatus (if indeed we find out that is what it will be to us suppliers) comes as a moment of blessed relief to me given current workloads - a chance to reset some straggling project threads and concentrate on some other things that weren't getting enough time.
But it's still something of a shock. And for those affected, inside the BBC and out, I guess we all just hold on tight. Even those who don't even really know yet.
The tragedy, of course, is that the content which is currently visible really isn't representative of what was about to go live. But I guess the dodgy world of business needed it to stay that way. As long as business interests are protected, who cares about advancing the medium or the consumers. Sigh.
Another drink anyone?
* It's not often I intentionally make a link that I know will soon be dead.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 09:38 PM | Comments (3)
August 11, 2006
Sad day
About once every six months I check that my claim to have one of the oldest pieces of content still live on the BBC site is still true.
And finally, nearly ten years later, it isn't.
(To put this in perspective, this page was created when I was called a webmaster, you got access to the bbc servers by ringing up Ops and persuading them you knew how to use an FTP client, and you had to make sure all your GIFs on a given page shared the same 256 colour pallete. No photoshop, no standard bbc navbar, 3-character file extensions only, and a sloping BBC logo)
*sniff*
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:41 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2006
For 5 more days only
Don't forget for a little longer you can still listen to Tim Wright's Radio 4 play Oldton on 'Listen Again' until next Monday.
(Tim, was it you doing the answerphone messages at the beginning?)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:22 PM | Comments (1)
June 30, 2006
Oldton continues
Huge congratulations to Tim Wright, whose wonderful fictional town Oldton now has a new life as a play in Radio 4's forthcoming memory season.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
I am become my own demographic
I'm slowly coming to terms with the real reason the likes of me play mobile games. Not that I play many, but when I do, they tend to be on my handset.
I will probably never get around to getting an Xbox or Playstation. Even now they've dipped under the magic £100 point.
And even if I did, I wouldn't have the time to play it anyway.
So my gaming has to be consigned to a cheap device I carry around with me for snatched moments when I just don't feel like a book, or Sudoku, or staring at more flashcards of chinese characters. But do feel like Lemmings.
(Actually the last point is a major bonus too. I'm odd in that I skipped most of the 'fun' computers one can have as a kid. We went straight from a ZX81 to dad's IBM XT with twin disk drives...and then pretty swiftly onto an AT with 20MB hard disk. So while others were playing Elite, I was playing with early vector graphics packages and a pen plotter. I was so desperate to play breakout, I got halfway through programming it as a fiendish set of macros in Lotus Symphony before realising it had no way to respond to realtime keystrokes. So finally I get to spend the time with Sonic etc I feel I never had. Bring on the BBC B and Spectrum emulators for Nokia Series 60...)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 07:31 PM | Comments (1)
December 04, 2005
Mismatch
I wasn't expecting to be being arsey about the secure DVD player *quite* so quickly to be honest.
The whole ethos of the Cinea is that you have an individual dvd player, for which you get individual passwords to different content groups through their website. I type in my serial number, am validated, and if I have the right entry in their database am sent back a looooong key that makes that particular player able to view discs in the 'bafta' group. Very tightly controlled stuff.
It's a substantial piece of kit - heavy, good connectors, a power button that latches with a satisfying click. So didn't think too hard about whopping out my old 120-quid multiregion Toshiba.
Now, because they want this thing to reek Trust and Quality to movie execs, they also want to show they take the current business model Very Seriously. So my ultra-secure DVD player...is also region 2 coded.
To be honest, not a huge issue. I only watch a few region 1 discs a year.
But then, one of the very studios that has paid so much for me to have this piece of kit goes and sends me the already-released-so-doesn't-need-to-be-secure Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...
On a region 1 disc.
You have to ask, do they take this stuff seriously or not?
I've had to head down to Maplin and buy a whole bunch of scart nonsense, just so I can now have *both* DVD players connected. The pile beneath the TV is no longer a pretty sight, or easy to use.
Madness.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 09:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 29, 2005
Cinea Secure DVD Player
I'm looking forward to being slightly sarcastic about this piece of high-end DRM over the next few weeks.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2005
Being Busy
Astute observers will have noticed that I wasn't at OpenTech today. This was not for want of trying. However an incident at Mile End took out enough of the Central line to make it impossible for me to get there at any sensible time.
I hope it was good, and I hope travel problems didn't mean that Etienne, Dave, Ewen et al weren't out of pocket.
As it turned out, it was probably for the best that I didn't make it, as the other big event of the day proved to be a little more involved than I had planned, and repeatedly testing a *very* broadband-centric site over a wifi connection shared with a hundred other people would have been slightly antisocial.
But I can at least tell you what I've been working on for the last six months. Say hello to a new moblogging service disguised as a competiton.
MTV:starzine (UK)
MTV:starzine (NL)
MTV:starzine (IT)
MTV:starzine (ES)
MTV:starzine (FR)
MTV:starzine (Nordic)
Still got some more functions to roll out over the next week, and there's tuning to be done, but Glue, Mobrio and internal guys Andy, Vihung and last-minute addition Sreenivas did a great job.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 09:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 27, 2005
In My Professional Capacity
Because of the scale of what I've been up to recently, it's a long long time since I last launched anything. So it's with great pleasure that I announce...a teaser site.
But what a teaser site. The folks at GlueLondon did mighty fine. (And so did internal folks Sreenivas, Andy, Imran and David)
>> MTV:starzine
(You can win tickets to the VMAs in Miami too)
It's so odd to think that in a little over a fortnight, I'll have launched the real thing. (None of us will think much of it, but then it's not aimed at our sort.) And the big Java networked game will have gone to QA...
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 03, 2005
And the Bafta might go to...
I've just been voting online for the final round of the Baftas. It's been a fun process, although I suspect I've taken it far more seriously than most. However there's one nomination I feel I absolutely *have* to rail against.
Why on *earth* is The Aviator nominated for best special effects?
There is what could be a truly stunning scene - the one I suspect everyone has in their minds - of Howard Hughes filming 'Hells Angels' with all those planes flying through the clouds, as close as you like, with 26 cameras mixed in among them. There are a couple of places where you can spot the CGI and the matting, but it's really rather good.
Except for one minor point.
It's mocking up, using modern techniques, something that Howard Hughes did *for real* in the 20s. They used computers and models to replicate all this stuff, when it had already been done in the medium not once, but (as the film is so keen to point out) twice before.
The Brian Coat award for Health and Safety? The Deloitte Touche award for costcutting and budget scrupulousness? Perhaps.
The award for special effects? I don't think so.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2005
I have a cunning plan
Working in central london, doing a stressful job, has many downsides. The main one being that lunchtime consists of two options:
1) Spending money
2) Not having a lunch hour at all really.
There is of course a third option, which is for the Sushi-at-my-desk brigade, and involves combining the two.
I'm a big fan of pub lunches, and a big fan of shopping, but the harsh realities of raising a child in a reasonably-posh bit of london (and thereby paying nursery fees that are comparable to the mortgage on your previous house in Walthamstow) means you have to rein things in pretty harshly. Sandwiches are pretty much essential, and that normally means eating them at your desk. Thereby allowing work to creep in and rob you of that all-important perspective.
I'm also not that good at window-shopping. It tends to become window-buying all too easily.
So I've been on the lookout for FREE (or at least very very cheap) things to do in W1 of a lunch hour.
And it's pretty sorry, actually. Particularly in winter.
I've wanted to practice my drawing, or just sit somewhere and read entirely non-work books - but the nearest library is 15 minutes walk away. And doing the same in a pub, even with just a half, stretches my drink-nursing abilities to the limit. (Besides I'm not sure it's fair on them as a business)
I have the good fortune to be a member of a posh members club, but that's ten minutes away too, and even a coffee there is going to be the equivalent of a pint of David Blaine at the local Sam Smiths pub. There's no obligation to buy anything, but it looks a bit odd if you don't.
However, the recent influx of screener DVDs I've had as part of my BAFTA voting has given me some inspiration. I'm starting to pilot it today.
I'm taking a DVD to work with me. And at lunchtime I'm going to go for a walk around the block and then sit and watch 45 minutes of a film. Or possibly the other way round. I'll get through a whole film every two-to-three days.
However, where this gets interesting is the network effect, and this is what pushes it under the two-dollars-an-hour.
The missus can also take one of these DVDs into work, and watch it. So by the end of the week we can both (more or less) have watched the same two films. We become a mini book group.
If you then add one of those 'DVD rental by post' schemes into the equation, suddenly everything changes again - you can explore all the films you've ever wanted to, two by two, without having to worry about how long it takes you to watch them, and then talk about them with other people, in a metaphor ideally suited to the media-on-demand-and-when-allowed/sociability-by-prior-arrangement world we seem to be moving towards as mid-30s parents.
If our first experiments work, there could even be a bookcrossing/allconsuming site or blogging tool to be made around it.
Watch, as they say, this space.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 01, 2004
This World AIDS Day I shall be mostly...
Pumping loads of translations into the staying-alive.org website.
I do rather recommend the Save The Humans stuff. Groovy CGI animals arguing.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 26, 2004
Byeeeee
It was apparent that together we were an unstoppable force of righteousness against corporate double-think and that we would lead the nation's EastEnders and Doctor Who fans on a shining path to interactive nirvana.
Luckily other, less travelled, paths opened up.
Jamie pays tribute to the departing Martin Trickey.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 03, 2004
I'm Dead Cultured, Me.
The BBC Russian site has a link to 'learn english'. As I'm trying to learn Russian (as well as simplified chinese - I like making things easy for myself) at the moment I was faintly fascinated, but was fascinated by their Proverbs and sayings page.
Some of these I have heard of, and others are complete strangers to me...
"No flying from fate"?
"No fence against a flail"?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 04:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 28, 2004
Don't Worry Be Happy, Check Out This Kid, and You have one voicemessage
Dear "Matt", whoever you are. "Matt" of the emails with "unknown date".
Somehow we seem to have reached a disparity of opinion. As I'm a good project manager, I feel it is my duty to manage your expectations.
So please, do try to understand that even if you send me over 50 of these arsing emails a day, I am not going to open them.
And I'm definitely not going to click on any links.
So please, do us all a favour and fuck off.
Sending 100 isn't going to be more likely to work.
Or were you the misguided person that invented popup advertising?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 13, 2004
Ah, God I love the EuroKick, Ted...
The whole nation is going through a strange roleplaying experiment at the moment.
Up and down the country, people who would normally only show the faintest interest in football are getting to find out what it's like to be a football fan.
Because we're slowly realising that something we thought was entertainment is actually an elaborately constructed set of big-business deals to get us to part with our cash.
Go to the supermarket and get your official EuroKick lager, EuroKick charcoal briquettes, and negative-factor EuroKick sunscreen to make sure you look like a boiled beetroot. On the way from the retail park, stop off and pick up your official EuroKick carpet tiles from an Allied Drive-thru. Don't forget to take off your Engerland EuroKick plastic flags from your car as you take it through the EuroWash.
I can see the beauty of football played well, but football fans used to put me off football. Now it's the infrastructure and policies of football itself - things constructed around the game - that make me want to avoid it.
In which case I guess it is the national religion after all.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 21, 2004
Euan's been nobbling again...
Larry Lessig is talking about Creative Commons as part of LIFT
Another date for everyone's diary!
(Though I'm increasingly concerned that by the time I've done all the work events I have to go to, I've got no time left to meet friends for fun and fun alone. :-( Is this normal for someone in my newly be-kidded position? And for how many years will it last?)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 12, 2004
Congratulations
...to Piers Beckley who now has representation over in LA.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 05, 2004
For the 8 year old in your life...
Sorry, a blatant plug here.
The latest two books, The Phantom of Billy Bantam and The Ghoul of Bodger O'Toole by the wonderful children's author Penny Dolan are now available, as they say, in all good bookshops...
Posted by Tom Dolan at 01:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 15, 2004
[this isn't a posting, okay?]
Next Friday, I shall be doing something rather unusual for me. I haven't done it for well over a year, in fact.
I shall be deliberately watching live telly.
Greg Dyke chairing Have I Got News For You is something I want to see so much I'm prepared to organise my life around it. If I can remember how.
[And if I was the programme makers I'd currently be trying to get Michael Grade on as a guest...]
[[Little lyric/.sig/philosophy thought from running some possible conversation scenarios around around my head: Today I may be yesterday's man, but tomorrow I'll be your future.]]
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 07, 2004
Bless...
From a gardening products newsletter that turned up:
Your e-mail address will not be passed onto any other company. We dislike spam as much as you.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 30, 2004
Back, and sideways
Hurrah! Fry and Laurie are working together again. Even if it's not on another series of 'A Bit Of...'
Ah. And Jane Root - the internally legendary BBC2 controller - is off to Discovery US, taking her unique style with her.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 29, 2004
Back in the zone
This post on Skip's Acorn Treasury made me very very very cross.
It's a particular type of seething fury that I thought was long gone, but James' post brings it right back.
This is how things work in the BBC. Imagine you're a department. You want to do something? Fine - announce you're doing it and see what happens. The best outcome is that you suddenly end up doing it - and the very worst thing that will happen is that you're suddenly locked in a "compromise" about a "co-production".
What do some people think they're up to behaving like this when DCMS review is iminent?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 05:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
February 25, 2004
Only Five Weeks To Go
...for you to send in *your* views to the BBC Charter Review.
Might be worth faxing your mp too.
(But I draw the line at this bloody 'are you a modern media consumer we want your feedback for 40 quid' thing that's going round. Regular readers will understand that they had their change to get my views and blew it... :-)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 12, 2004
Disney takeover?
Fascinating stuff about Comcast's hostile bid for Disney.
He has come under attack by Roy Disney, nephew of the company founder, who recently accused Mr Eisner of turning the company into one that was "rapacious, soulless and always looking for the quick buck"
Well that's going to change after the takeover eh?
And blowing the Pixar deal probably wasn't the brightest start to the year. One to watch with interest...
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 29, 2004
What a tossing waste
Greg Dyke was the best thing to happen to the BBC in ages. And now he's gone.
a) I hope the government are proud of themselves.
b) Handy timing for taking over as chairman of ITV eh?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:59 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 18, 2003
Class, pure class
I can see why Dodge didn't spot that Lingerie Bowl 2004 would be in some way titillating or demeaning to women. Thank heavens they've seens sense now and pulled out to only cover the 'sporting' element of it.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 04, 2003
B3TA fans are everywhere
A sample of code from the MTV.CO.UK homepage:
<body onload="preloadimages();">
<div class="yay">
<div class="woo">
<div class="floatLeft">
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 09, 2003
On getting things in proportion...
A possibly apocryphal quote from someone dealing with 'lack of perspective' from people working on the BBC hospital-based drama Holby City:
"By the way, can I just point out, we're not *actually* doctors"
Posted by Tom Dolan at 01:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 30, 2003
It's true...
Conclusive proof here, that over the last four decades, one man's perception of the ideal womanhas got blonder.
(And possibly slightly thinner. Or perhaps just less imaginative in her posture.)
via cityofsound
Posted by Tom Dolan at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2003
And on the subject of getting a life...
Simon Mutual Misunderstanding has just found evidence of the matrix
Posted by Tom Dolan at 01:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 16, 2003
Camp, or careless?
From today's Snowmail newsletter...
Fudge expected as Anglicans debate gay clergy:
=============================================
We are expecting something to happen as the Church of England's highest gather to agonise over the issue of the gay clergy. With talk of schism rending the air, dramatic moves could happen. But then again this is the Anglican Church, so a little light fudge over the Earl Grey seems more likely.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 05:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Making the management pyramid evolve towards you
Mr Colfelt has a rather beautiful take on restructuring companies
Today we were mostly being restructured... again. I think it's about the 8th or 9th in the four years I've been here... two a year. That's a pretty good average.
Well worth reading on as he beautifully expresses what I now think is a pretty universal symptom.
(Hmmmm, some strange linkage between crystallography, recruiting in your own image and organisational behaviour bubble round my head. But it'll pass.)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 15, 2003
Interesting
From today's 'New Media Age':
A shake-up of the way the BBC produces intereactive TV programmes will see the Corporation's director of television, Jana Bennett, taking up joint responsibility for commissioning and strategy with BBC director of new media, Ashley Highfield.
Scott Gronmark, the current BBC head of interactive TV programmes, will leave the corporation. Several members of the team behind iTV production at Bush House in Central London will move over to Television Centre at White City in the next few months.
Just thought it was worth noting, that's all.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What were they thinking?
I don't care *how* deep and moving a voice you say it in, Seabiscuit is a fucking stupid name for a film.
Riding Seabiscuit, Seabiscuit passes the post, Seabiscuit the superhorse, Taming Seabiscuit, Seabiscuit escapes being catfood, gosh anything would have been better. Particularly something that indicates that, say, Seabiscuit is the name of a *tossing racehorse*.
But no, in the UK the trailer comes on, and all anyone in the cinema can do is giggle. You should have thought of that, marketing people.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 10, 2003
Goodbye Eddie
My Sunday mornings will simply *not* be the same...
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 08, 2003
I think there's something in this...
Scott McCloud has an interesting take on micropayments.
U.S. News: Why has a widespread, popular micropayments system been long in coming?
McCloud: When the idea was first seriously tried in the mid to late '90s, people were unprepared to pay for content while they still felt like they were paying with their time
Via Tim Wright
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
