This week’s edition of the BBC programme Click Online contains a report about EuroOSCON. The transcript is here and the Real Audio stream is here. The programme is repeated a number of times on various BBC channels (mainly News 24) over the next couple of days. It’s the first report in the programme, but its… Continue reading EuroOSCON on the BBC
Author: Dave Cross
Rigging the Poll
Obviously running a bit scared following their one vote win in the recent terrorism bill debate, the government have decided to ask us for our views on fighting terrorism. Except, being “New Labour” they can’t bring themselves to ask a straight question that might get an answer that they don’t like. The key point in… Continue reading Rigging the Poll
Nasty Pop-ups
Regular readers will know that I dislike pop-up ads on web sites. But I hate the new breed of pop-up ads that go to the effort of breaking through pop-up blockers and insist on showing me pop-ups even though I have explicitly said that I don’t want to see them. You’ll also know that I… Continue reading Nasty Pop-ups
Blunkett Resigns… Again
David Blunkett has resigned from the cabinet for the second time in twelve months. You’d think that someone would learn a lesson somewhere along the line. Either he should learn to stop abusing positions of power or Blair should stop appointing him to them. But no. I’ve no doubt he’ll be back again within six… Continue reading Blunkett Resigns… Again
Searching The Guardian
Looks like The Guardian have taken their new search engine out of beta and are now linking to it from the main site. It all looks very nice.
Sony Takes DRM Too Far
Here’s an interesting story from a Windows user who found a rootkit on his system. Further investigation revealed that it had been installed by Sony when he had played the digitally protected music on a CD he had bought (Get Right With The Man bu Van Zant). Sony is apparently so concerned about protecting its… Continue reading Sony Takes DRM Too Far
A Brief History of Disbelief
Most TV documentaries have been dumbed down to such an extent that they are often unwatchable. Programme makers seem to think that it’s impossible to explain concepts to the viewer without flashy graphics or re-enactment of key scenes. And a lot of time is wasted telling us what we are about see or what we… Continue reading A Brief History of Disbelief
BBC Programme Catalogue
When I saw him in Amsterdam, Matt was talking about a secret project he was doing for the BBC. And now he has revealed what it is. He’s putting a web front end on the BBC Programme Catalogue. That’s a database that contains details of almost a million programmes that the BBC have broadcast over… Continue reading BBC Programme Catalogue
MirrorMask vs The Corpse Bride
Last weekend I saw The Corpse Bride. Yesterday I saw MirrorMask. Two new films from past masters of fantasy. How do they compare? Actually there’s no comparison. MirrorMask is streets ahead. Whilst I’m a big fan of a lot of Tim Burton’s work, I find that some of his gothic fantasy stuff is a bit… Continue reading MirrorMask vs The Corpse Bride
EuroOSCON Day 3
Late, but I thought it was worth recording what I did on the final day of EuroOSCON. As always, we started with the keynotes. Marc Heglund talked about privacy issues and the possibility of an “open data” movement. David Heinemeier Hansson talked about the secrets of Ruby on Rails and MySQL’s Kaj Arnö showed us… Continue reading EuroOSCON Day 3