July 2008 Archives
July 31, 2008
Interactivity and Flickr at the British Library 'Ramayana' exhibtion
Whilst we were in the UK recently I took the opportunity to go to the British Library exhibition on the Ramayana. I've seen some great exhibitions there over recent years, including 'Front Page' and 'Sacred', but I have to say I found this one a little disappointing. It probably wasn't helped by the fact that when I visited it, it was absolutely swarming with school-kids, and I could barely get to see even a fraction of the main displays. There...
July 30, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 12 - Pretending to see the future
In this series of articles I've been looking at how the way I've organised and consumed music and made 'playlists' has transformed over the last 30 years. When I first started showing an interest in listening to records when I was a youngster, my playlist mechanism was pretty much shouting at my mum to put my records on. As I got older the Compact Cassette allowed more opportunity for me to choose what I was going to listen to...
July 29, 2008
60th anniversary of the 1948 London Olympics
With the 2008 edition of the Olympic Games just days away, today is the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of the 1948 London Olympic Games. Unlike the previous time that London held the games, in 1908, when they started in April and lasted most of the summer, the 1948 games had a recognisably modern two week format. London had only a couple of years to prepare, having been awarded the games ahead of Baltimore, Lausanne, Los Angeles and Philadelphia in...
July 28, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 11 - It's more fun to compute
I've been writing a series of articles looking at how the way I've listened to music over the last 30-or-so years has changed with the different formats music has been sold in. The introduction of the Compact Disc in the early 80s digitized music, but it wasn't until the advent of cheap home computers in the late 1990s that the true impact of this decision began to be felt. Digitization paved the way for two new ways of organising...
July 27, 2008
'Received pronunciation' for London from TfL
The BBC is famous for having an official 'pronunciation unit', that was the ultimate arbiter of how things should be said on air. With the drive towards using regional accents on television, and a move away from 'received pronunciation', the unit probably has more demand now for how to pronounce foreign names and words, than for working out whether English children were going to grow up saying 'bafth' or 'barth'. You could access a lot of the content via the...
July 26, 2008
Hanging on to Perl
James Cridland, BBC radio new media über-lord left a comment on here recently, pointing out that, despite the fact that I was watching the telly at the time, I was one of the very, very few people to put their hand up and admit to coding in Perl during the recent TechCrunch UK / BBC debate at Broadcasting House. The question arose because of the continual clamour that the BBC should release all production code under some sort of Open...
July 25, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 10 - Wired for sound
I've been writing a series of articles looking at how the different musical formats I've used in the last 30 years have shaped the way we made 'playlists'. In the last part, I looked at how the music industry's digital tape revolution with the DAT and DCC formats failed as a consumer proposition. Another format that never really gained mainstream adoption was Sony's MiniDisc format. I, though, was a huge fan and convert, mostly because of the flexibility of...
July 24, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 9 - Gimme dat thing
So far in this series I've looked at how changes in music formats have affected the way that I consumed music and made 'playlists'. The progress has pretty much followed the same pattern as the overall progress of music formats - up until the introduction of the Compact Disc. Having successfully induced a large proportion of the record-buying public to migrate from analogue vinyl to digital Compact Disc, the music industry next attempted to migrate consumers from analogue cassette...
July 23, 2008
Looking after Walthamstow's greyhounds
At the weekend I was writing about my final trip to Walthamstow's Greyhound Stadium, and lamenting its closure. It was a local landmark just around the corner from where I grew up. As a youngster, 'going to the dogs' wasn't a Daily Express headline bemoaning the state of modern Britain, but a treat. Not everybody is unhappy to see the track close however. This quote is typical of some of the messages posted around the Internet on stories of the...
July 22, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 8 - Mixed up
In the previous part of this series looking at changes in the way I have consumed music during my lifetime, I was talking about the introduction of the Compact Disc into my listening habits. For a couple of years, I was very picky about when I would spend £11.99 on a compact disc album and when I would prefer to spend £6.99 on a vinyl copy instead. Not least of my concerns was that I had a record player...
July 21, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 7 - Revolution #9
I've been writing a series of articles about how my music listening and purchasing habits have changed over the last 30-odd years, specifically looking at how different formats have affected the way I've assembled the 'playlists' of what I wanted to listen to. So far, it has all been about the analogue formats of radio, the Compact Cassette, and the vinyl record. And then the Compact Disc arrived. The digital revolution It is probably a little unfair to have...
July 20, 2008
A last visit to Walthamstow's Greyhound Stadium
When we were recently in London I paid a final visit to Walthamstow's Greyhound Stadium. After 75 years in the greyhound racing business, it will be closing its doors for the final time later this year, awaiting redevelopment as a new housing estate. Even a visit from Boris during his Mayoral campaign couldn't save it. Just a few years ago the British Greyhound Racing Board declared Walthamstow dogs to be their 'Racecourse of the Millennium'. It hasn't even lasted one...
July 19, 2008
2008 Olympic "Spambush" marketing
'Ambush marketing' at major sporting events has become a prevalent phenomena in the 2000s, affecting the Olympics despite the incredibly complex sponsorship rules drawn up by the IOC. The 2002 Winter Olympics saw Sprint running a snowy campaign that associated the brand with sponsoring 'everything fast, new, and really quite amazing', whilst during the 2004 Athens games, beer Miller ran a campaign proclaiming victory in an Athens-based taste test. Athens, Georgia, mind you, but Athens nevertheless. And who can...
July 18, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 6 - If you buy this record (your life will be better)
Starting off with the times when I simply yelled at my mum to put my favourite record on, I've been writing about how the ways that I have organised my music playlists have changed over the last 30-odd years. In the main this has been due just as much to the way musical formats themselves have changed, as to any differences in my musical taste, listening habits and lifestyle. Buying my own records regularly In the last part of...
July 17, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 5 - Poised over the pause button
I've been looking at the different ways physical music formats determined how I organised and consumed musical 'playlists' over the last 30-odd years of being a music fan. So far, during the seventies, I've mostly looked at situations where I was at the mercy of my parent's tastes. However, as the eighties started, I had regular access to my own record deck in my own room, and soon got my own cassette-radio player. Having my own cassette player rapidly...
July 16, 2008
BBC iPlayer browser search plug-in updated
I got an unexpected email from the Mozilla Mycroft project a couple of weeks back, to say that my iPlayer Search plug-in had been updated. To be honest, I had forgotten that I had even submitted it. Andrew Steele has refined the code, putting it into the proper Open Search namespace and adding some extra elements to govern updates to the plug-in. My only gripe is that he has also changed the logo from the shocking electric pink iPlayer 'Play'...
July 15, 2008
John Fogerty at the Royal Albert Hall - comments follow-up
Having mentioned listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival in today's "Lifetime of lost playlists" post, I thought I'd follow up on my moan about the John Fogerty show I saw whilst I was in London a few weeks back. To recap, I was very excited to be around and to get the chance to see John Fogerty live, especially as I was able to go in the company of my dad, who'd introduced me to the band with cassette compilations and...
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 4 - Forever changes
I've been writing about how different music formats and technologies have shaped the way I organised 'playlists' during my lifetime of music consumption. Nowadays, iTunes and Last FM count up and track everything I play, and tell me what my 'most listened to' artists and songs are - but what about the records I listened to when I was young? So far I have looked at how my early music choices were somewhat at the mercy of my parents....
July 14, 2008
This Dopplr duck wants to travel by sea!
According to Dopplr, I have the velocity of a duck. I suspect that might go up a bit as I've got some more globe-trotting coming up in the next few weeks. What should I aim for? A goose? A peacock? As well as the animal-velocity meter and public profiles, Dopplr recently introduced a feature to calculate (for fun) your carbon footprint based on the amount of traveling you register with the site. That also means you have to let them...
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 3 - Watch the tapes
I've been looking at how the way I've made playlists and organised my consumption of music has changed over the years. I've been thinking about it because, whilst nowadays iTunes and Last FM track almost everything I play, I've got no playlist data from the previous 30-odd years. In the second part I was talking about my earliest memories of having vinyl records played for me - basically by shouting at my mum to put my records on. Today...
July 13, 2008
My top ten FUMSI articles: Part 2
I've recently joined the FUMSI team as contributing editor for the 'share' section. The magazine is aimed at Information professionals, and provides ideas, case studies and tips on how to Find, Use, Manage or Share information. FUMSI has a philosophy about information, and it is one that I feel very comfortable being part of: "Information work is no longer confined to a library, research centre or information unit; everyone has an information role, whether it's to find, use, manage or...
July 12, 2008
My top ten FUMSI articles: Part 1
The July edition of FUMSI magazine should be available now, and it is the first edition I've taken part in as a contributing editor. I've joined the team looking after the 'S' in FUMSI, which stands for 'share'. Each month the website and magazine feature a new article in each of the four Information Professional activity spaces - how to Find, Use, Manage or Share information. The PDF edition also includes comment from the four contributing editors, Marcy Phelps, Tim...
July 11, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 2 - The kids are alright
Yesterday, I began a series of posts looking at how format changes over the last 30 years have shaped the way that I have organised and listened to music. I was also lamenting the fact that there was no digital file recording my music 'attention data' over all those years. My 'most listened to' playlist on iTunes only covers the years since I have had an iPod, rather than including the musical 'highlights' of my youth. My childhood music...
July 10, 2008
A lifetime of lost playlists: Part 1 - Pump up the volume
Format-driven changes in my music consumption over thirty years Nowadays we are surrounded by 'attention' data about music. Amazon tells us that other people who bought the same music as us also liked something else. The iTunes music store gauges the relative popularity of tracks from an artist. Last FM allows us to let all our Facebook friends know what we've just been listening to - however embarrassing it might be. And we miss it when it isn't there....
July 9, 2008
"People, Places, Subjects" - BBC Topic and Guardian keyword pages: Part 5
I've been writing a series of blog posts looking at the BBC's new beta test of 'Topic' aggregation pages, and comparing them to the similar pages offered by The Guardian, who index their stories by keyword. So far I've looked at how the pages compare to the BBC's search results, at their URL structure, the availability of RSS, the type of classification used, and the external links that feature on the pages. Gathering feedback Like all good BBC Beta tests,...
July 8, 2008
"People, Places, Subjects" - BBC Topic and Guardian keyword pages: Part 4
Over the last few days I've been drawing some comparisons and contrasts between the way the BBC has launched their new 'Topics' aggregation pages, and the way that The Guardian achieves much the same effect with 'keyword index' pages. So far I've looked at things like external linking, RSS feeds, URL structure and the classification style being used. Similarities with search As has been made clear on the BBC's Internet Blog, it is the search team at the BBC that...
July 7, 2008
Daily Mail website review for the Press Gazette
If you were interested in my opinions of the Daily Mail's recent website re-design, but found you didn't have time to wade through my over-wordy multi-part review the other week, you might be interested in an article published in the most recent edition of Press Gazette. They asked me to contribute a much shorter review of the Mail for their 'Expert Eye' column - "Net gains for Mail Online". The longer review series has also been summarised on The Editor's...
"People, Places, Subjects" - BBC Topic and Guardian keyword pages: Part 3
I've been writing a short series of posts looking at the similarities and contrasts between the BBC's 'Topic' aggregation pages, and the functionality of The Guardian's 'keyword index' pages. So far I've looked at their slightly different approach to classification, their output (or lack of) as RSS, and the design of the page URLs. External links One noticeable contrast between the two organisations is the way that they handle external links on these 'aggregator' pages. The way that the BBC...
July 6, 2008
Invading copyright is just a game for The Times
The Times had an online feature at the weekend celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Space Invaders game that did so much to popularise electronic arcade gaming when I was a youngster. Embedded in the feature was a widget allowing you to replay your wasted youth. This is, of course, the forward thinking kind of use of multimedia on newspaper websites that I would usually be full of praise for. There was just one teensy problem. The opening screen of...
The Halifax - always giving you a little extra aggravation
Now, without wanting to start sounding like a grumpy old man, or indeed like Roshan Doug in the Birmingham Post, I have to indulge myself with a rant about some recent poor customer service from the Halifax. We wanted to open a new savings account for my wife, and, having taken advice from the boys at t'Fool, we opted for the Halifax. I applied to open the account online, with the expectation of dropping a cheque into a branch next...
July 5, 2008
"People, Places, Subjects" - BBC Topic and Guardian keyword pages: Part 2
The BBC recently launched a beta trial of 'Topic' pages, which aggregate content from around bbc.co.uk and the wider Internet about people, places and subjects. They are very similar to the automated 'keyword index' pages on The Guardian's website. I've been looking at some of the features of the two side-by-side. RSS feeds One feature that The Guardian offers which the BBC doesn't is topic-based RSS feeds. Each of the Guardian's keyword indexes has a related RSS feed which you...
July 4, 2008
"People, Places, Subjects" - BBC Topic and Guardian keyword pages: Part 1
Some time in 2001 I went to my first ever meeting with people from BBC News Online. I was enthusiastic, fresh-faced, and completely oblivious to the 'difficult sibling' history that existed between the BBC New Media & Technology department where I worked, and the senior managers from BBC News Online that I was meeting. I suggested they do two things. Firstly, remove the 'noindex' meta tag at the individual story level on news.bbc.co.uk. Secondly, based on the evidence of search...
July 3, 2008
Google Street View spycams spotted in Walthamstow
I was hanging out in Stoke Newington the other day and wound up in a little Turkish cafe called 'The Dervish' - presumably, I'll have to ask forgiveness when I re-enter Greece. I spotted something that I hadn't noticed before - in the window, underneath a tattered old London Olympic bid sticker, was a sticker boasting that the business was listed in Google Maps. Once I'd spotted one, I started seeing them cropping up all over the place. And I...
How was it for you? The Chipwrapper & Fansivu Euro2008 review
With Euro2008 over, and Spain worthy champions, I thought I'd take a quick look at how my two Euro2008 web prototypes fared during the course of the tournament. I built Euro2008 Fansivu, which attempted to track in real-time user-generated content which featured references to Euro2008. I also made a Euro2008 edition of Chipwrapper, my newspaper search engine service. Euro2008 Fansivu When I decommissioned Euro2008 Fansivu on Monday morning, the final page showed the strengths and the weaknesses that the...
July 2, 2008
.cc not .cy for the TRNC
I spotted this poster on the Underground the other night, and I was quite intrigued - no, not because of the lady in the bikini - but because of the domain name being used to promote tourism in 'North Cyprus'. Of course, one man's 'North Cyprus' is another man's 'Turkish Republic of North Cyprus', which is another man's 'Turkish occupied Κύπρος'. Whichever way you look at it, the TRNC does not have an internationally recognised TLD for the Internet, although...
July 1, 2008
Watching Euro2008 on Zattoo in the heart of the BBC
As you may have spotted in my post about last week's TechCrunch / BBC debate at Broadcasting House, I attended it with one eye on what was going on in Basel. Thanks to wifi in the art deco Council Chamber where the debate was taking place, I was able to stream the first Euro2008 semi-final between Germany and Turkey silently on my laptop. The thing that struck me was that I used Zattoo to watch the game. At 7:40pm,...