Tech> Thoughts> Further musings on the potential of Homechoice

Continuing on the below post - I'm talking about having a PVR and a VOD-solution. Would putting PVR functionality in a box driving a VOD concept be counter-intuitive? Yes. But how long will it take before we'll have ALL the channels Homechoice offers on VOD? Longer than I'm willing to wait, probably.

After all, Homechoice invests in a proprietary box for the consumer. Adding an 80GB hard drive and a video card to take care of encoding/decoding would be an extra investment, but this could be used for other purposes as well. Potentially big purposes. Two-way content transfer pops to mind first. While I'm fantasizing, a Homechoice box could as well pull an entire operating system on demand (which I think it does already - the menu functionality *should* come from a centralized location) without much in terms of extra variable costs.

Why would HC want to support user-created content? They are already combining TV and IP, going the YouTube way would the diametrical opposite. It could well be that the channels wouldn't like an operator starting to provide or enable free content. Maybe HC sees UCC as low-quality tosh - but so were websites 10 years ago to a large extent. Video is a more complicated medium, but the quality and style of expression will improve - YouTube and Google Video are analogical to the early days of the internet. The most popular videos are getting millions of views (dozens of millions in some very popular cases), but the content is brief and difficult to navigate. We should expect a "revolution" (at the risk of using a big word) around video comparable to what blogging did to publishing - a simplification where form gets away from the way of the function and allows vastly more people to express themselves through that medium. I could be wrong with the function-over-form bit: it can be debated whether the most popular TV shows today are more form or function. Or maybe I should just think outside the box.

Going back to Homechoice, maybe they're not interested in the above at all and have bigger plans. As an aside - scrounging for leads, I found that the Homechoice PR team has a... MySpace page. That's quite wacky. Having thought about it for three nanoseconds, I conclude that more PR teams should have MySpace pages. I mean, one of those guys says they listen to Marilyn Manson, AND they have a job.

Tech> Marrying the Mac and Homechoice

I'm working on trying to marry my Homechoice box, Mac Mini with Front Row (and an external HD to add to the clutter) and my HDTV. I'm expecting to end up with too many remotes, a mass of wires, and a couple of burned fuses.

Elgato's EyeTV 250 is the closest thing I've found this far that heads in the right direction. It's got S-Video input but no Scart, so that would mean another adapter dongle. But I can probably hide it somewhere. Ok. TiVos are out of the UK.

I've no idea how well or poorly the electronic programming guides will work with Homechoice, though. Theoretically well, as long as the programs start on time, which they do like trains in Germany - but that will most likely mean programming the EyeTV and then leaving the Homechoice box on, and on the desired channel: so only recording that channel during any given time of absence, and of course the wasted energy from keeping the box on. Hmm. Homechoice needs an API.

Sure, it would probably just be easier with plain Sky and a dedicated PVR. But Homechoice is a brilliant concept, and a very good implementation too, especially considering that's it's not as popular as I'd expect it to be (this totally anecdotally, haven't seen any numbers). I especially like the remote. Peculiar, I know. And what comes to Front Row, I've used it once and loved it (sure I'm biased - it's the only option from my provider of choice :) ).

Stupidity> O2 website

On the O2 website I'm constantly greeted with a javascript window telling me: "Your browser version is out of date. Would you like to upgrade it now for a better user experience? (Highly Recommended)". Clicking on "OK" takes you to a page pointing to a Netscape upgrade page, or to various 404s. They don't bother to do an OS check, which would tell them that I'm on a Mac, and there is no NS8 for the Mac. And this window just keeps popping up on numerous different pages despite hitting cancel earlier.

This is idiocy in action. I'm happily using the latest version of Camino which renders the vast majority of the web perfectly. A crummy mobile operator shouldn't have anything to say about my browser choice. And you should really try and mistake Camino for FF instead of NS, that would offend me a bit less.

Besides, if you can't force your site to remember the value I gave earlier but keep shoving that upgrade-window down my throat, what should we expect you to know about user experience in the first place? And you dare "highly recommend" it? The script is mostly concerned about Opera, but doesn't offer an upgrade when I checked the page with an old versionof the browser - although it renders like shit, with menus behind O2's clever flash-splash-banners and everything.

Log> Home from Lasik surgery 4 hours ago

My eyes sting slightly still, but I can see nearly as well as (I used to) with my contact lenses on. Hopefully, by tomorrow morning, I won't be needing neither contacts nor glasses anymore. This bank holiday weekend will mostly be spent in bed practising the harmonica, with sunglasses on. Nothing out of the ordinary there except for the harmonica.

Stupidity> Science> Nuclear Energy Criticism

Cadarache in France will in 2007 see the start of the first nuclear-fusion reactor, were the nuclear process and the reactor in fact to function as planned. It is a technological, energy-political and potentially even an environmental gamble, but one that we should make.

Among others, the criticism voiced by Lorraine Mann on the BBC News is irrational and overly conservative. She commented that the solution was not suitable for the developing nations and would only be possible under a heavily centralized system and massive government funding - after all, it is forecast to cost a whopping 10 billion Euros and to take 35 years to build.

First of all, the developing nations that couldn't afford it will not, even in 40 years, need the couple of petawatthours that we globally used in 2000. China and India who of course clearly will, will be able to afford this form of energy and have also joined the consortium building the plant.

Second of all, were China to want to grow with the current energy input/economic output ratio, it were to require 6 times as many kilowatts per dollar of GDP than the US currently requires (will dig up calculations for that if you really want to see them). This could be a shortcut for providing this energy for the long run - although we clearly need to solve the fossil-fuel consumption issues in the Far East before the controlled fusion reactors will be functional.

Third - I'm guessing you will want to keep nuclear-fusion under centralized command and planning to begin with. Harnessing the same reactions that power stars should not be the first system to privatize on anyone's list. Somehow, I don't think that the Friends of Earth and anti-nuclear campaigners quite meant this, but just wanted to riposte the rhetoric.

There is quite nothing like investing in science, and it's good to keep in mind that conservative thought creeps in in the guise of left-wing and right-wing change resistance alike.

Sounds> Eurovision 2006!

Never thought I'd blog about the Eurovision contest, but here comes. A vote on BBC looks pretty positive to Lordi, at least at the time of writing (+80% say that they "deserve to do well"). As a disclaimer, I do think the song getsa bit too boring and predictable 4 seconds into the first verse (I agree with Pekka that it's just like early 80's Alice Cooper), but I'm also proud for the fact that it has caused such uproar, commotion and ridicule. Shake down those stale institutions of mediocrity.

Sounds> Log> AIH @ ULU

Melbourne-based band Architecture in Helsinki played an energetic, eclectic gig at the ULU on Saturday. Last summer I was in Helsinki I tried to look for their records out of curiosity, but couldn't find any from either Stupido or around Viisikulma, although the former had AIH on backorder. And I just went through the "all songs played twice or more"-list at Radio Helsinki, and no trace there either. Dear northern countrymen: AIH is a worthy band to introduce in Finland as well. The brilliantly lively, summery pop would fit right in during the long, bright nights of early July - ideally on stage at the Ilosaari Festival. And don't be put off by the name. I don't know why you would, but I don't really understand you guys anyway. That's why I'm still living abroad.

And of course, I'm only putting this in writing now so that when they break big, I can say that I told you so and that I used to like them when they were still good.

Tech>> BS categories reloaded

4 days later, the categories-hack on the right-hand side works. The search seems to ignore the ">>" in the term (yes, I should've known), so I'll probably go back and switch it to search for the term only in the post title (add inposttitle: in the query string). I'm happy I went with blogsearch.google.com instead of search.blogger.com: although the technology is the same, the design is different, and something about Blogger's search results makes them harder to read immediately although the centered layout and rounded edges would go better with the template I chose for my blog. Maybe my eyes are just so conditioned to scan Google's results pages that I automatically prefer that.

Art >> People>> Fliar

For a long time, I've meant to publicize my respect for Chris of Fliar.com fame, and I'll finally do it now (with the new platform and all). He is a talented artist with a stong inclination for symbolism and cryptic messages embedded in the epics he tells through his art.

Quite remarkably, Chris also operates a mailing list. It's remarkable because it's a physical mailing list, where he sends a copy of his latest creation, around monthly or once every two months and doesn't mind sending his art overseas. Much praise to you, Chris.

I lost a good two hours on the site on my first visit, and every time that Chicago-stamped envelope slides out from the mailbox is another slip into the comfortable darkened, slightly numbed realm where monsters live in bottles and hearts burn.

Sounds>> Sacred Selections

I just got tipped off by a trusted source on a musical event that will be a one-off for sure: Sacred Selections includes an evening of Black Metal, played on an authentic church organ as far as I understand anything. London, this Friday the 12th. Free entrance. 8 pm.

Tech>> More Blogger categories hacks

Moshare tries to help us out with categories, too, but since it's a server-side script, it misses the point that it part of the appeal of the whole Blogger thing - I want my blog to be server-agnostic, and I want to be able to switch it's location through the online control panel if I feel like moving.

(Tangent: ok, you won't want to move your blog that often, you probably want to establish yourself in a certain address, preferably under a short domain name, and post and post there and get higher and higher in Technorati. Which is all good. Good luck.)

Back to my original point, I'm still struggling with this, because I of course want everything-here-now, and BlogSearch isn't turning up the posts that feature the category names you see to the right of this column. I changed the format of the search URL for the third time, now to the format introduced by Skeptic Rant, which I'll have to add to my reading list for other reasons, too.

Tech>> Mac mini + batteries + Debian

Mac mini has really sparked the creativity in a lot of techies, and luckily a lot (or maybe all of them) are posting their customizations online.

In general, Apple has a lot more technically fluent audience than the outside categorization assumes. Even the ad campaign for the Intel move underlined this - I'll dig up the copy that the billboards ran when I have the time, but it was worth noting. The iLife-only audience, and the majority of the private XP-audience probably missed that message altogether.

(PS. first post from my DB Widget. Interested in seeing where the URL goes.)

EDIT: the URL didn't go anywhere. Lame widget. Added the link above.

Tech>> Log>> Trying to get rid of the BlogSpot version

Hmm, maybe I'm being an idiot again, but I can't seem to remove the krotti.blogspot.com page I created for testing purposes, until I switched to publishing the blog on my site. And I'm still testing the categories -- maybe two of those chevrons is overkill, one would've sufficed.