What if the twitter fed coordinates of all the radio telescopes were piped to a 3d twitter vision globe, and you could see all the directions that all the radio telescopes in the world were pointing like a giant grapefruit with cheese and pineapple on sticks stuck in it. Different frequencies could be represented by different fruit, and you could see from the direction they were all pointing in which bits of the sky were being looked at and which bits the aliens could sneak in and attack us by. Then over time you could do a sort of time lapse animatin to see the sweep and flow of radio astronomy acros the sky. That would be pretty.
This is my idea #1 for hackday.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
zzz
Did the Great Escape festival last weekend in Brighton, and twas brillig, but I had forgotten this band, zzz, who, on balance, were probably my favourite. Quite weird, almost scarey, and very very dutch, but none the less outstanding. Some day all rock will... actually no, it never will.
Tweeting to a select few?
Or broadcasting to the world? According to Bojo it turns out that due to the way that twitter's api works at the moment, all that carefull 'only tweeting to friends' or 'blocking' is completely circumvented by pulling a feed via the api. Does this matter? not sure myself- I never really saw the point of private tweeting, or at least, I can see the point, but it is essentially different to the main, core twitter proposition.
I mean, I have tried to follow people that I thought would be interesting, and found them blocking all and sundry, and felt a vague sense that they weren't really playng the same game as the rest of us, and similarly, I have only very rarely been tempted to block. In essence, I see twitter as fundamentally public- those are the rules, use twitter to publish stuff and we'll all play nice.
i can see a role for a more exclusive twitter type service too, one where it's more invite only. I think the distinction between the two approaches is only now becoming evident at all, as usage blossoms and critical mass is reached. If Ev or anyone else reads this, I'd like to suggest a bifurcation of the twitter service, into private flocks and public mobs, or whatever the correct zoological term is for describing homogenous and heterogenous groups of birdies respectively. Covey and flock would seem to fit the bill. (see what I did there?)
I mean, I have tried to follow people that I thought would be interesting, and found them blocking all and sundry, and felt a vague sense that they weren't really playng the same game as the rest of us, and similarly, I have only very rarely been tempted to block. In essence, I see twitter as fundamentally public- those are the rules, use twitter to publish stuff and we'll all play nice.
i can see a role for a more exclusive twitter type service too, one where it's more invite only. I think the distinction between the two approaches is only now becoming evident at all, as usage blossoms and critical mass is reached. If Ev or anyone else reads this, I'd like to suggest a bifurcation of the twitter service, into private flocks and public mobs, or whatever the correct zoological term is for describing homogenous and heterogenous groups of birdies respectively. Covey and flock would seem to fit the bill. (see what I did there?)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Escapades
One day and five bands into the Great Escape Festival, and I'm rather liking the format. A music festiva in my home town, in my favorite pubs and clubs- I can get twisted listen to great new bands, then roll home to my own cosy bed and wake up with my own bathroom right there and home baked bread. Living in Brighton and commuting to London isn't always the easiest way to do things, but today it really really makes sense.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
It would appear I am not paranoid...
and in fact my fears of the looming crisis in the BBC's innovation/ research and development area are in fact shared elsewhere. In the Guardian. And by the ever so erudite and perspicacious Bobbie Johnson. Ok so the grauniad piece is by bojo, but still it looks like the FUD is beginning to get noticed elsewhere.
As it goes I have a slightly different take on this to bojo and others currently in print and blogs (see also the very wise Euan Semple's blog). As I understand it these guys see the main problem as being Ashley Highfield's corralling of the BBCs new media elements as likely to lead to a stifling of the previously fecund diversity of the teams across sport, news, radio etc. I get that. I can see that it is a culture change and that at the core there are things moving perhaps slower. However, I thinks that's because at the core they are trying to do harder stuff. The fringes will remain dynamic, active, and perhaps now we will get better cross fertilisation. No, the problems as I see them are far more severe than any slight dulling of web innovation.
Ibelieve the Trust is showing itself to be quite weak in defending the BBC when it is doing good- This is an edit of a far more strongly worded earlier post, but in essence I think a poor precedent has been set for the support of good services, and this is something that Euan and Bobby and others such as Cory Doctorow have picked up on. Imortantly though you have to recognise that the Trust is NOT the BBC. And in fact it seems to be rather antithetical toward the BBCs objectives. That is a problem.
The second problem is internal to the BBC, and does in fact reflect upon Ashley and the senior management of his inland empire- Future Media and Technology. The story of what the new division comprises is long, its new leadership appointments have been long winded and in some cases quite hotly contested, and some friction has emerged. In essence several groups with widely differing cultures and world views have been brought together, and it's not actually working all that well in some key elements. One area of particular concern is the R&D group- these are engineers, people who have over the years given the world DAB radio, ceefax, much of NICAM and MPEG, and many thousands of other highly technical broadcasting engineering inventions. They are scientists and engineers, people used to working for years investigating, experimenting, testing, developing and standardising technical ideas.
In many ways the skills and professional approach of these people is different from the equally, but differently, talented web developers and engineers who for the last few years have been rapidly spinning new idea into finished products in mere weeks or months. The difference is profound. I can only guess at the very top level issues and roles and responsibility that are failing to correct the obvious and glaring problems but the problems themselves include;
Then, to compound all this, there is Siemens. Bless them. Good example of a partnership though. Ahem.
Right, I've definitly said way too much, and I haven't even had a pop at the archives yet. But hey, the night is young, and I still work there, and at some point about a couple of hundred words back I crossed a line about discretion I'm sure. I believe, deeply, in the power and the need for public service broadcasting, and also in our responsibility to shoulder the burden of making the best technical systems for this country's and the world's viewers listeners and browsers. We should because we can. If the Trust lack that vision, then that's their look out.
N.B. I have toned this down a tad- last nght it all got a bit splenetic.
As it goes I have a slightly different take on this to bojo and others currently in print and blogs (see also the very wise Euan Semple's blog). As I understand it these guys see the main problem as being Ashley Highfield's corralling of the BBCs new media elements as likely to lead to a stifling of the previously fecund diversity of the teams across sport, news, radio etc. I get that. I can see that it is a culture change and that at the core there are things moving perhaps slower. However, I thinks that's because at the core they are trying to do harder stuff. The fringes will remain dynamic, active, and perhaps now we will get better cross fertilisation. No, the problems as I see them are far more severe than any slight dulling of web innovation.
Ibelieve the Trust is showing itself to be quite weak in defending the BBC when it is doing good- This is an edit of a far more strongly worded earlier post, but in essence I think a poor precedent has been set for the support of good services, and this is something that Euan and Bobby and others such as Cory Doctorow have picked up on. Imortantly though you have to recognise that the Trust is NOT the BBC. And in fact it seems to be rather antithetical toward the BBCs objectives. That is a problem.
The second problem is internal to the BBC, and does in fact reflect upon Ashley and the senior management of his inland empire- Future Media and Technology. The story of what the new division comprises is long, its new leadership appointments have been long winded and in some cases quite hotly contested, and some friction has emerged. In essence several groups with widely differing cultures and world views have been brought together, and it's not actually working all that well in some key elements. One area of particular concern is the R&D group- these are engineers, people who have over the years given the world DAB radio, ceefax, much of NICAM and MPEG, and many thousands of other highly technical broadcasting engineering inventions. They are scientists and engineers, people used to working for years investigating, experimenting, testing, developing and standardising technical ideas.
In many ways the skills and professional approach of these people is different from the equally, but differently, talented web developers and engineers who for the last few years have been rapidly spinning new idea into finished products in mere weeks or months. The difference is profound. I can only guess at the very top level issues and roles and responsibility that are failing to correct the obvious and glaring problems but the problems themselves include;
- An ongoing process with no obvious outcome to shut down the facilities at Kingswood Warren and relocate the engineers and scientists.
- A lack of a clearly identified role at the head of line management for R&D who displays a strong understanding of R&D in a broadcast engineering context. (EDIT: There are really good people there, but authority and responsibility gets weirdly muddled and loads of stuff is falling through the cracks)
- A merging together of a lot of highly qualified and varied men and women into a 'pool' structure where all job roles are considered to be generic.
Then, to compound all this, there is Siemens. Bless them. Good example of a partnership though. Ahem.
Right, I've definitly said way too much, and I haven't even had a pop at the archives yet. But hey, the night is young, and I still work there, and at some point about a couple of hundred words back I crossed a line about discretion I'm sure. I believe, deeply, in the power and the need for public service broadcasting, and also in our responsibility to shoulder the burden of making the best technical systems for this country's and the world's viewers listeners and browsers. We should because we can. If the Trust lack that vision, then that's their look out.
N.B. I have toned this down a tad- last nght it all got a bit splenetic.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Seen Straight and Fast
Almost wish..., no definitly wish I'd had something a tad sparkly to imbibe before seeing the spectacular that was Lola Rennt with a live soundtrack by the Bays at the brighton festival tonight. And hour and half of solid extremely loud utterly livid vibrant stomping hard core house and a brilliant film. I even managed to have a quick chat to the projectionist- tonights film was shown on one of the UKs two brightest digital projectors at 25,000 somethings, runing at 1000 by 2000 raw digital SDI of digi beta at SD. makes you realise how patchy an original it is- occasional artefact torrents and some really staggered contrasts and exposure.
BUT still and all I'm sitting here typing at ten to thr dozen listening to the soundtrack again determined to do something very fast and physical at some point soon. Graaaaaaaaah!
BUT still and all I'm sitting here typing at ten to thr dozen listening to the soundtrack again determined to do something very fast and physical at some point soon. Graaaaaaaaah!
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