16th May 2008: The Future Of
Music, The Future Of Computing, The Future eee PC, The Future Of BT
Employees,
Welcome to today's edition of The Minimalist Blog, a blog
and podcast offering opinions and insights on the day's technology news.
The Barenaked Ladies manager has been outlining his vision of the
future of music. And it's Doritos flavour. Terry McBride
has said that he thinks that the future of music isn't in CDs so much,
but advertising sponsored deals. His vision is that in the future
there will be paid subscription services as we have now, but rival
advertising sponsored services as well. The idea is that the
services you pay for will be viewed as "chic" and cool. He also
says that free and paid will become relative to the person's point of
view. Personally I don't get this as free is free and paid is the
precise opposite. Unless of course he is thinking of the Open
Source definition of free...
Bill Gates has been touting a "new" technology. The Microsoft
Touch Wall looks like a large version of the iPhone or iPod touch, and
is being hailed as the next big thing along with Surface by Bill
Gates. The touch controlled computer works using infra red and
lasers. But here is my problem with this "new" technology.
I've seen it before. Not in a technology show. Not at an
expo. And it wasn't a prototype model. My ex's son's school
used this exact same technology using projector screens and a
projector. This isn't so much innovation, more "How can we make
an existing technology look cooler?"
Asus are promoting the hell out of the new eee PC 900, but some
customers are waiting on the 901, and they may have a point.
Blogee.net have showen pictures of the new eee 901 which looks curvier,
thinner and a lot slicker than the previous eee models. I have a
problem with the new eee PCs. My eee PC 701 cost £150, but
the new models are now becoming as expensive as a regular laptop.
Example - my new Toshiba A210 cost £338 including delivery and a
£50 rebate, but the new eee PCs are going to cost about the same
as that, except my Toshiba is far more capable than the eee PCs.
The new eee PC will also feature an Intel Atom processor.
BT is facing strike action from the union Connect who are rejecting the
pay deal BT are offering. Connect have said that they hope BT
will come back to talk with them, because they are unhappy with the
distribution of pay rises, not the actual pot on offer. One issue
is that there are managers who are going to be paid less than the
people who they manage. They also have issues over the fact that
men are still going to be paid more than women. Connect has
14,000 members inside BT, and have told their members not to travel to
work, and not to be contactable outside their contracted hours.
Possibly more difficult than normal when you work for a major telecoms
provider...
Phones4u are being investigated over strange business practises.
Allegedly. Their staff are given a commission for every mobile
phone they sell. These commissions vary depending on the
contract, phone, and network they sell. So the investigation is
finding out whether their staff are selling the phones based on the
size of the commission, or whether the phone suits the customer.
One other problem that has been highlighted is that people haven't been
told about the financial commitments in a contract. Naughty
boys.
Now, in this part of the blog, we are planning to discuss e-mails and
comments people have left for us. As this is our first post, we
can't, so, please feel free to e-mail or leave a comment. Our
e-mail address is hyde21k@gmail.com.
A truck has been developed that will run on coffee grounds. The
idea is that it uses a wood gas generator to create a combustible fuel
for the truck. To be honest, this could be used to turn anything
into a fuel for a truck, or any other kind of modified vehicle. I
think this is a great idea, with great potential, but I am not sure
whether or not it's going to be ready for the mainstream. I mean,
how many coffee grounds or trash or anything else are you going to need
to power the truck. However, I work in the retail environment,
and I know that we throw away a LOT of food, and our coffee machine
creates a LOT of coffee grounds. We also don't do home delivery
because of the cost of fuel outweighs the takeup for the service.
But if we had this kind of technology in our vehicles, we would
actually be able to run the vehicles for free. And that has to be
an interesting concept for anyone who is looking into doing this kind
of thing...
We also plan to run a daily top 5. It's just a fun thing we like
the idea of, and I'd like to think that you, the reading and listening
public can contribute to our lists in the way of commenting or
suggesting a top 5 theme for us! To start with - Top 5 80s kids
tv shows.
1: Dogtanian. Not sure if this ever made it to the US, but it was
huge in Europe. The retelling of D'agtanian with DOGS.
Genius! And one of the evilest villans ever? A rat.
He looked like Splinter about 3 years before Splinter from TMNT became
a TV show character. And the lifetime sexiest evil female in a
cartoon award goes to M'Lady. I know it is wrong on many levels
(she's a cat, she's evil, she's a cartoon) but damnit, she was
hot. And guys my age agree.
2: The A Team. Despite the fact that it was based around 4 guys
travelling around in a van together, being macho, it was still a great
show. Especially the episode where they were locked in a hangar
with NOTHING and drove out in a tank.
3: Knight Rider. This
is only not number one because it made The Hoff famous. That is
simply unforgivable. But still, the coolest car ever made, and it
still looks good today. Great premise for a show, and one of the
hottest redheads to ever grace our screens. And it had comedy
too...Hoff's perm!
4: Thunder thunder thundercats. HO! Sorry, couldn't resist
it. Worrying thing is, I have seen people in the papers who
look like Liono now. Y'know, one fake tan too many?
5: He-Man. Ok, so, looking back, gay as all hell. BUT, as a
kid, just awesome. I was always secretly rooting for Skeletor to
win just once, but he never did. And I always loved that green
guy with the metal jaw. Kinda like a cartoon version of jaws, but
way less sinister. Shame. And for those who argue that
He-Man wasn't gay, all I will say is Ram Man and Man At Arms.
Also, how camp was Orko? And for those without a sense of humour,
the gay references are as schoolboy as the TV shows...
Now, lastly, I am going to give you my TV picks of the day. I
have decided that our TV picks will be picked from the BBC's fantastic
iPlayer. Namely because anyone in the world can watch it.
Especially if you follow this link. Now, on with the viewing
guide! Since it's the BBC iPlayer, times don't matter. I
find normally it's best to go check an hour or so after the show has
aired. First up is Have I Got News For You, possibly one of the
funniest, sharpest comedy panel shows in the world. For those who
have yet to see it, an example from last week was:
(A picture of Boris Johnson and David Cameron appears)
Ian Hislop: "There's a picture of the next Prime Minister. And
David Cameron as well."
Paul Merton: "You're not seriously suggesting Boris might become PM!"
Ian Hislop: "Well, if he does a decent job as London Mayor, why not?"
Paul Merton: "It's like a joke that never ends isn't it? You're
just waiting for the punchline!"
Next up is QI. Easily the second funniest comedy panel
show. The talent speaks for itself - Alan Davies as the only
permanent member of the panel, Stephen Fry as the QImaster, and any
range of comedy talent filling the rest of the panels. The idea
is really simple. Sort of. The questions are all really
obvious. Like "what is man made object is visible from
space?" Here's a hint, the answer ISN'T The Great Wall Of
China. Or "what should you avoid whilst dehydrated?" The
answer isn't coffee. Or alcohol. Or even diuretics.
If the contestants give an interesting answer (QI stands for Quite
Interesting) but fewer points for just the correct answer, and minus
ten points for the obvious but wrong answer.
Next is Later With Jools Holland. This is just a great
show. The idea is that the latest and greatest bands perform
completely live with some classic or unknown bands. Jools
Holland, he of The Boogie Woogie Orchestra and Squeeze hosts the whole
thing and interviews the bands and various celebrities who visit in the
audience. If you have never seen this show before, you simply
HAVE to watch it at least once.
Then there is Top Gear. I don't really think I have to explain
this show, but for those who have been living in a cave under Loch Ness
for the last 5 years, the concept is simple. 3 middle aged motor
journalists who have a need for speed, fun, and sarcasm review fast
cars, challange celebrities to drive a regular car as fast as possible
around their private test track, and have The Stig (a tame racing
driver) drive fast cars to give an absolute time for said cars.
Oh, and sometimes they have challanges. Like driving "classic"
sports cars which cost less than £1000 from London to
Birmingham. Or racing each other from London to Sweden. Or
driving across the Sahara Desert in cars which cost less than
£1000. From the 70s.
Lastly, there is the excellent Dr Who. Now, I do feel tonight's
episode is a touch silly. If only because the aliens in it
basically blow bubbles into green water to communicate, and the ending
is touching, but overcooked. Can we please stop getting The
Doctor in situations he would NEVER take part in. Examples -
blowing up a space ship or the end of tonight's episode.
So, that is the end of our first episode. We know this is quite a
lot to read in one go, but why not download the podcasts when they
become available? We're planning to make the podcasts available a
few hours after we post the articles.
Permalink
|
|
|
Podcast Downloads
|