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digital_elysium

Listed below are comments made by digital_elysium between Tuesday, 25th August 2009 and Monday, 16th November 2009.

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Points of View and HD Picture Quality: a response 1:00pm on 16 Nov 2009 Occam's razor: the explanation that requires the fewest extra assumptions is most likely to be the correct one.

Two possibilities:

1) Hundreds of unrelated people who have never met simultaneously "imagine" a marked drop in the quality of a TV channel.

2) The TV channel quality dropped.

Which is the most likely explanation?
Vaz v Watson - Modern Warfare 2 4:27pm on 09 Nov 2009 Modern Warfare 2? Pfft. You think that's bad? I once saw a computer game where some little bloke got cash by headbutting bricks and gratuitously stamping on turtles and other small animals. Then... he started dropping some magic mushrooms. I can't believe we are letting our children be exposed to this kind of filth!

Vaz is a fool. MW2 will be the biggest game of all-time because it is the closest thing we currently have to an interactive cinematic experience. And despite what Nanny Vaz thinks, rather than be corrupted by the "glorification of terrorism", I suspect most will be sensible enough to put the hyperbolic "airport scene" into context.
My life online - time to delete? 12:42pm on 05 Nov 2009 Re: #2
This comment had me worried whether i'd opted in too in a fit of stupidity. Thankfully i didn't. Why on earth would you opt in?

Because Google refine their search results and tailor them to you based on your previous searches. For those who aren't particularly paranoid, it's very useful.
24 hours with Ubuntu 1:05pm on 26 Oct 2009 As I am sure Rory expected, he writes a review of a Linux distro which is less than glowing, and 150+ people comment to tell him he's wrong. You've told him he needs to keep at it for 2 days \ a week \ 6 weeks \ 6 months, before he will grow to appreciate it.

But Rory's key point is shared by many who have dipped their toe in the non-Windows world and ultimately given up... is it worth it? What benefit will the average, casual user gain from switching OS (bare in mind, the aforementioned time-span required to acclimatise). Many, such as myself (and apparently Rory) have seen enough to determine that the gain is simply not yet worth the pain. There are no stunning leaps in functionality, no serious innovations over Windows, and it's not particularly any easier to use. Yes, it may be quicker and more stable... but for those of us who keep our Windows well-oiled and well-secured, that's not really a game-changer.

Incidentally, the Linux community is not as universally friendly and welcoming as some have suggested. There was always an air of elitism and frustration wih "n00bs" who hadn't "RTFM" (and understood it, which is the key point). This is something which I experienced first hand while trying to bridge the gap. It may be better now, but I suspect old habits die hard.
Reading the Kindle 12:57pm on 20 Oct 2009 Other contenders - perhaps including an Apple tablet - may learn some lessons from Amazon and take digital reading to the next level.

Given the reason for people's ambivalence about the concept (an expensive, niche product trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist), this sounds like an odd statement.

No doubt though, when Apple finally copy the Kindle and put an apple logo on it, we'll never hear the end of how brilliantly innovative and game-changing it is.
Who wants to live in Vodafone's world? 11:20pm on 24 Sep 2009 It's like "March of the Luddites" in here.
What compels someone to post on a technology blog and tell everyone their Filofax is better? Do you jot the numbers down with a Quill? Much better than those new-fangled, fancy-Dan "Ball-points".

Having a digital contacts book is a no-brainer. You presumably can't carry your filofax around in your pocket with you wherever you go. Having the contact list in the Cloud is also a no-brainer. It removes the risk of you losing your contacts if you lose your phone, means you can sync various devices, and means if you change your phone, you don't need to perform a painful address book transfer.

The question appears to be is Vodafone's Cloud offering any better than what's already out there? Rory appears to be distinctly underwhelmed.
Picture Quality on BBC HD: a response 08:58am on 21 Sep 2009 Seems to be the age old Quantative vs Subjective argument again.

I imagine (in a nice way!) AndyQ as a boffin in an "Aladdin's Cave" of technology, studiously studying the read-outs that tell him that the BBC HD quality is the same or better as before.
However, all the gizmos and gadgets in the world can tell you that the PQ is fine... but the only real test is to actually look at the picture. And there is a considerably quantity of people looking at the picture, and feeling distinctly underwhelmed.

I wish now that I hadn't deleted the early BBCHD broadcasts from my Sky+ disk. These were the clips I used to boast to my friends with. And the response was always the same: Wow. Now, the response is more: Meh. I can accept the argument that perhaps this is down to a desensitisation to the quality of HD. Perhaps the novelty has gone. Perhaps the PQ hasn't altered at all, and the only change is that my Wow-benchmark has been raised beyond what BBCHD offers.
But this argument falls down when I flick to a different station. When I flick to Eurosport, or LuxeHD or even (at times, such as Ross Kemp in Afghanistan) SkyOneHD. Then I still get the Wow. And BBCHD is still Meh.

Three things appear to have changed since Wow went to Meh. 1) The bit-rate dropped. 2) The encoder changed. 3) The programme mix increased. And while the programme mix does include some hap-hazard HD productions (Jonathon Ross), for the most part it still appears to be drama and documentary. That would suggest the loss of the wow is due to one of the first two. Elementary my Dear Quested.
You do us a dis-service by suggesting that neither has had an effect. I can't prove to you that your channel PQ has decreased over time. But I can tell you that your competitors still make me go Wow, and your channel makes me go Meh.
BBC HD: Autumn Schedule 08:19am on 08 Sep 2009 #17: ropies
"Despite significant growth on various HD platforms in the last year viewing figures are still poor, infact at one bit they even seemed to be going into reverse. Between now and the end of the football world cup 2010 you'd expect significant growth and brand new viewers. Marketing is most definitely needed."

------

They could improve this considerably by ensuring that the voiceover continuity presenters announce "this programme is also available on the BBC HD channel" when there is a simulcast. Some do, some don't. It's a frustrating inconsistency.
What makes a tech story? 08:30am on 02 Sep 2009 Congratulations on the introspective; even better that you've thrown it out to a wider audience... just hope you've planned to at least review some of these comments and harvest them for ideas.

My tuppence worth:

I am generally happy with the news stories on the site, though I could think you could cater for the more niche techies more often. For example, you occasionally mention "the cloud" which sounds like some mysterious entity, but you never go further. What's happening with the cloud at the moment? Yesterday, IBM launched their first DaS (Desktop as a Service) cloud-based product. Last month, Microsoft opened up the clould-based Azure network for developers. These are stories with potentially HUGE impact on the technology world, yet the BBC doesn't cover them. Why? Is it a conscious choice that they are too niche, or is it simply that you don't have the skills or the expertise to report on them?

You need a coherent strategy on product launches. To the outsider looking in, it appears as though you are bedazzled by a the marketeers of a small number of companies, while ignoring their (often much larger)competitors. Some have suggested an "all or nothing" approach. You have suggested only attending events where the product is a "sea change". The only problem with that is that it's based on your own subjective (and subconsciously biased) opinion.

Finally... "Twittergate". It's worth noting that the technology website wasn't really affected by this, it was the blogs. In particular, Maggie's blog. So I wouldn't worry too much about this, unless this "awayday" also relates to the blog as well.
Teenage hackers: Making a better world 12:41pm on 25 Aug 2009 #7 - Hackerjack:
sad, lonely, unsocialble people locked in their bedrooms trying to break into militry computers, steal credit cards, download sadistic porn and copious amounts of pirated films

You've just described my teenage years there...

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