I am actually a little sad about this one, for a variety of reasons. First, wtf am I on about? (a question that readers of this blog frequently ask themselves I would guess)
Anyway, I'll miss it for one, and although I need to investigate Veoh a bit more, as that's what they're sending people to now, the first video I tried to put on there wouldn't upload. Good start.
If there's one thing i'm not a fan of, it's cold calling.
..well sometimes it's alright, but certain days suck.
GODDAMMIT!
Y'know, I like the BBC iPlayer, despite it's lack of Mac download support, it fits into my ever evolving viewing lifestyle, more on demand.
I can get home, pick a programme to watch, one that may have been on 5 days ago, but I was busy, and watch it, it's a good concept, which is surprising, cos I think most people thought it was gonna suck. The quality's not bad, on my 13" MacBook or Powermac's 19" CRT it looks ok, and I even plugged the MacBook into a 32" Sony Bravia, and to be fair, once you're sat back in a chair, it's not that much worse than the nasty artifact laden digital standard def.
However, there's issues.
The organisation of it could do with a little improvement, maybe top picks from each category on the front page rather than just 5 or 6 programmes from all that's available.
I haven't explored the whole RSS side of it yet, but then iPlayer appeals more to my impulse viewing side rather than the scheduled series, although if I can RSS an individual series, say The Choir so that I'm alerted to each new episode (much like a podcast) that would be handy I guess, depending on what you've got to handle the RSS at this end.
Downloads, ok still no d/l for Mac (or Linux), cos the Beeb loves Bill too much, but again, I'm not that fussed, this is more impulse, channel surfing, see what's on, and the downloads expire at the same time as everything else afaik, so there's no huge benefit there apart from...
Streaming. Oh good god. When it works, it's brilliant. The other 20 odd hours of the day it's a pain in the arse, especially if you're into a programme that you're watching then about 10 minutes in, it starts stalling, and you get this stupid twirly dots thing pop up EVERY SEVEN SECONDS! (yes I timed it). I don't want to have to shout CUNT at my screen every seven seconds, I'll become a geek with tourettes!
Please BBC for the love of god do something..
According to the iPlayer help page, under the streaming section...
"Why is my programme not playing smoothly?
If your network connection is not consistent, you may experience problems connecting – the video will pause and a circle will spin on your screen. You can check your connection speed at www.speedtest.net.
This link will take you to a website outside bbc.co.uk. The BBC is not responsible for content or software downloaded from external sites.
Check that your connection is not being shared with others that may be downloading or uploading files. Network traffic may also build at certain types of day, so you may wish to try later."
Uhuh. No.
- I did the "speedtest", confirmed I'm running around 2Meg, not great, but it should cope.
- "Network traffic", yes lag exists but..
- "you may wish to try later", no I want to watch the programme now, I'm already watching it later than it was originally broadcast for Christ's sake!
I was gonna post something along these lines to the suggestions message board on their site, however you can only do that between 8am and 10pm, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow lunch or something.
Possible solutions...
- More servers? I'm not sure on how many they have, but I'm sure more would be better, I'm guessing YouTube has a fuck-ton more than the BBC.
- Larger buffer? Yeah, I think this one's a winner, I can wait a few more seconds for my programme to start if it means it won't cocking stop! So A larger buffer would be nice plus..
- Continued buffering while paused? Wait doesn't pretty much every other Flash player out there do this? YES! It appears that the iPlayer doesn't, there's no progress bar that I can see to indicate that it does, so why the cock not? I pause it, go grab a drink, by the time I get back it's well ahead, so even a bit of lag shouldn't affect my viewing pleasure.
Only time will tell I guess (and whether I remember to post a polite version of this on the BBC message board), right now I'm gonna try to finish watching the rest of the programme about people getting it on in Second Life.
Ever have any of those times where you're plagued by indecision, uncertainty, doubt, lack of conviction etc, all topped of with a bit of a head cold.
Disappointingly pronounced Bozzam, something I obviously refused to do all the time we were there.
Well, December 31st has rolled around again, another year over and done with and a new one just about to start.
Another camera gig, but with a twist...
Welcome to...
The Floatel!!!
Yes it's a hotel that floats. It's also shite.
So all the way up to Liverpool, well Nantwich (which I've just remembered is Greg's haunt, which I didn't remember at the time, sorry Greg) for the hotel then onto Liverpool.
Anyway check out these 'beauty' shots of my room, 'key' and view...
Apologies again for the shite quality, well Nokia apologises in spirit. How's me, sat waiting at Oxford services takes your fancy??
No well, Patrick and some kit then.
Anyway, twas a fun day, despite being a shite hotel and getting bugger all sleep the night before the shoot! Now I'm home an fucking knackered, so my bed and sleep beckons.
Oh yes, that's right I went to see Queens Of The Stone Age at Brighton Dome.
Were they awesome? Yes they were.
Did I suffer some permanent ear damage? Yes I think I did.
Was I disappointed that they didn't play Feel Good Hit Of The Summer? Yes I was.
Was I over the moon when they opened with Hanging Tree? Hell yeah!
Enjoy some shit photos from the shit camera on my Nokia.
Today I was seconded for a little jaunt up to Norfolk (or thereabouts at least) to film an interview with this guy for a BBC Worldwide thing. (Yes, that's pretty much all I knew/know)
All went pretty well, (his name's Richard West btw), the stuff, looks good, sounds good, or at least it did when I shot it, Tom (prod.) got everything he wanted, all cheers....
The guy has a Williams F1 car in is garage!
Basically, we were talking about teamwork in F1, he's worked for McClaren, Ferrari and Williams and now does management consulting.
The guy has a Williams F1 car in is garage!
so got back to the office at a reasonable time, I checked in with the production I'm actually on, then got out early so that I could get home to see Megs and give her, her present and card (as it's her 10th birthday), got a train that was a whole hour earlier than I usually get...what time to I get in??
Yes that's right, the SAME COCKING TIME AS USUAL!!!
The trains are a joke, a big shite joke and I hate them, I pay getting on for 4 pissing grand a year to ride the damn things and they can't even timetable them properly or get them to run to the damn timetables, I was late this morning and I was late this evening.
Bastards.
Still I touched a real F1 car in someone's garage today. :D
...then I'm working full tilt again, is there no nice middle ground?
So I'm back on Resource Review for a spell, the first batch is proving mildly stressful at the moment, with things coming right down to the wire (and possibly tripping over) thanks to some drop outs at the last minute.
Not all ICT stuff on this one, got a good mix, although to be fair, I'm probably looking forward to the ICT Hardware stuff most (although the "Green" and "Outdoor" progs should be interesting), but then that's the geek in me. And filming at 
Shakespeare's Globe was quite nice and Matthew got several rounds of applause from students of various nationalities for his 'performance' on stage.
Doing some more camera work, with stuff at Brook Lapping and also the odd freelance corporate gig, such as the trip to Bolton and on Sunday just gone was a job for Cancer Research UK for one of their 10K runs at Hampton Court Palace, the day for which started by filming some deer making their way out of the early morning mist, followed by copious amounts or runners and volunteers.
All in all an enjoyable day, although carrying the Z1+Tripod around on my shoulder all over the field, left me slightly bruised :/
The other thing the day confirmed for me was exactly how crap the camera on my Nokia 6630 actually is!!
Still...
WISPA'S ARE BACK AND HELL YEAH!!!
Long old day yesterday, starting off for me at 4am, driving over to Tunbridge Wells for around 6, then up to Bolton for Lunchtime (thankfully I didn't have to drive that bit), do some filming and then back to Tunbridge Wells and drive home by about midnight. Wake up far too early this morning feeling like I'd been out on the piss all night and doss about all day bar typing up an invoice.
Another momentous landmark appeared yesterday, apart from being my first corporate gig, it was also the first time in my life I'd ever stepped foot inside a football stadium (Wembley Stadium not included as it's pretty much multi purpose and was kitted out for a gig at the time), the one in question being the Reebok Stadium, home of the Bolton Wanderers.
It's smaller than it looked from the outside.
Web 2.0 is all the rage, and I'm registered on various Web 2.0 sites, Facebook, MySpaz, Digg and for a short while now Pownce.
Pownce is apparently like "Twitter on steroids", Twitter is basically the "Status Update" bit of Facebook, it's called 'micro-blogging'.
Now Twitter I've not touched, I update my status on FB a fair bit, from serious to ridiculous statements, and for actual blogging, well.. you're reading it, so I'm still a bit in the dark as to whether Pownce is filling a useful niche in my life, so the features, or the different things you can send:-
Messages:- As I said, like Twitter or the Status Updates on FB. I rarely use the status updates for any real serious application, more that I feel the need to change it on an ongoing basis. I can kinda see an advantage to this aspect of Pownce in that, you can use it seriously and targeted, whereas your status on Facebook simply crops up in the news feed to everyone of your friends. How does this apply? Not sure, it's not as immediate as an IM or text (SMS), is it more immediate than sending an email?? Hmm.
Links:- Looks pretty much like a message except it's got an http tag attached. There are times when you need to bung a link over to someone, I can do that on email, in a Facebook message (which are basically my two main forms of online communication now) or if the person's online in an IM. Hmm.
Events:- Facebook has an events section, allowing you to create an 'Event', say a gig or a party, send that event to your friends, who can then RSVP to said event online. Handy. There are various levels of privacy available, so if you're having a party at your house you can keep the Event hidden from the rest of Facebook, or if it's a gig, advertise it to the world, then, post event, people can upload pics, videos, discuss, all within the event's page. Cheers.
Pownce is a lot simpler, allowing you to simply post the event details publicly or to select friends. Quicker, so for a informal get together a lot less hassle, but for bigger events, more a reminder tool??? Hmm.
Files:- Pownce allows you to send files to other users, a standard account can send up to 10MB and a Pro account ($20/yr) can send up to 100MB files.
Now this for me could be the hidden gem, or not so hidden as the case may be. Email is the usual method for me to send a file over to someone, but a lot of email systems, especially company (corporate if you prefer) ones have poxy 2MB ceiling on their attachment sizes either in or out, not the best as I work in film/video/broadcast and files can be a tad bigger than that! And even some other email providers will start to quake under larger file sizes. Ok what about IMing the file? Well, MSN Messenger is what most people I currently know currently use and file transfer on that it bigshite, sending a sub 100k JPEG is painful enough at times! FTP? Yea there's FTP, I could upload the file to my web-space, send people a link to the file to download it, but then if I'm in a situation where I'm bunging files around, that'll probably rape my bandwidth, plus it's a bit of a hassle.
So the whole File side of Pownce is intriguing, send (potentially) up to 100Mb files, people either pick them up immediately (I think) or next time the log on and it's there.
There are other file options out there, which I've yet to fully explore, there's one called Tubes or something that sounded interesting, but at the time I looked was Windows only, cross platform is better thanks. Then there's the issue of my MySpz headline "How many sites does one man need?"
If you're on Pownce add me, plus if you actually know me I've still got my 6 invites if you wanna have a lookie.
http://www.pownce.com/MattGrover/
Just been pondering as i commented on the lack of British TV stuff in the iTS, as to what shows i'd actually buy (from wherever) from the store.
By the way, it seems the British offering currently consists of:
Genie In The House (Nickelodeon) - Disturbing kids tv offering
Jongleurs Unleashed (Paramount Comedy) - Stand-Up stuff
Comedy Blue (Paramount Comedy) - possibly British
The World Stands Up (P.... C....) - some Brits in it.
Oh yay.
Anyway...
What would I buy...
Lost
Battlestar Galactica (not gonna happen)
Heroes (nor this)
possibly The 4400 as I'm getting into that now.
also The Night Stalker sounds intriguing but dunno what it's like.
My Name Is Earl (dunno what network)
Jericho
Bionic Woman - maybe, but again i think it's NBC and I'm not entirely sure if it's good yet.
Yes I am a geek.
Anything British if it were to appear?
Lead Balloon - Bloody good, but it's more of an impulse watch thing as are..
The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh, and other similar ones.
Dramas???
Wire in The Blood - but my girlfriend watches it as well, so I'm quite likely to see it broadcast, I have been tempted with the DVD's if I get them cheap enough.
There's nothing else that I can think of that I actually WANT to follow over "watch it if it's on".
There's no way I'd buy any sort of reality or "talent"
Well the BBC are ditching production on various dramas, I'm hoping we're gonna see a decent 16-24 episode series that can compete with the Yanks, I've a feeling it's gonna be more expensive one offs and 6 episode blips and maybe another Dr. Wo spin off :/
...finally!!!
iTunes wouldn't give me the stats on their one :(
Now for the screen caps (iTunes on the left, DivX on the right and hopefully clicking on them will take you to the relevant page on my Flickr account)...
Now I don't think there's a lot in it, I think the iTunes one's a bit over saturated, but at first glance, it could be ok. BTW it may be worth noting that currently I'm either watching this stuff on my 19" CRT or my 13" MacBook, not a 40" HD LCD ;)
Anyway, I'm gonna ponder some more in a bit as I have to go out now, but would be interested in people's thoughts on this...
I've been using Microsoft Windows Vista for less than an hour, probably less than half an hour so far and it's already sucking my will to live.