Defenestrated

BBC TV channels to be put on net

I see that the BBC has announced plans to broadcast its TV stations on the net! I know I keep banging on about how fantastic the BBC is but...really! Come on. What other broadcaster of this stature and establishment would ever dream of doing something as innovative as this? No-one, that's who. It's tremendously brave of the BBC to embrace online broadcasting so wholeheartedly and I think the global TV-watching Internet-using population should start funneling cash towards the Beeb forthwith.

Hotel web site was misleading

Compare the Web sites of the Oceanus Motel and The Heritage Inn and Golf Course, both of which are in the Lewes/Rehoboth area of Delaware. They're both great places to stay, with their own advantages. But look only at the Web sites. The Oceanus looks beautiful, with a welcoming site and lots of information about the facilities and the area. The Heritage Inn site is pretty embarrassing by comparison, with a circa-1998 design, poor navigation, and little information about the local area.

Based on the Web sites alone, which hotel do you think would provide you with a comfortable stay in a great location with a host of pleasant surprises as part of the bargain? If you're anything like me, you'd go for the Oceanus every time. But you'd be wrong. We stayed at The Heritage Inn and I can tell you that it's absolutely wonderful. The Oceanus is also great but its Web site puts it head-and-shoulders ahead if that's your main source for information as you're deciding where to stay.

Yet another lesson in putting too much faith in the Web to provide enough information to hang yourself.

NGP article in GCN

Before I went on vacation last week I was interviewed by Government Computer News' Jason Miller about the National Grants Partnership's first white paper. The resulting article was published yesterday and I think it captures the core of the white paper very well, emphasizing the need for grants management data standards across the grants enterprise.

Unanticipated TiVo problem

We were on vacation last week and experienced an unanticipated problem with our TiVo: it wasn't with us. It's not that we didn't have plenty to do, or that the weather was bad, or that we're TV addicts. But when the kids wanted to watch a few minutes of TV while we (the parents) got ourselves ready for the beach, our kids were stuck with a stark choice that they had never had to experience: we had to watch something that happened to be broadcasting at that moment, on one of the three available children's channels.

Erk.

More than once our kids said something like, "Can we watch 'Charlie and Lola' now?" or "Again, please!" when we did find a show they liked. But how to explain to a four-year-old and two two-year-olds that we can't do that for them; that they have to suffer the result of broadcast programming when they've only ever known a world in which we can choose the show for them to watch, whenever we want?

I don't think they really understood it at all, and I don't blame them. But it's an interesting problem for anyone with small kids and a DVR at home. If you've got a neat solution (that doesn't involve DVD's or playing DivX's on your laptops!), please let me know.

Why smart people defend bad ideas

Scott Berkun's got a curious article on his site right now: Why smart people defend bad ideas. I've known many instances when seemingly smart people make simply God-awful decisions or ridiculous proposals. (I've no doubt, incidentally, that I've been guilty of both on multiple occasions myself!) Berkun identifies scenarios and counter-strategies that I find resonating in my head.

However, I'm a little troubled by the extreme nature of some of the examples he uses to illustrate his points. Few of us, for example, are likely to find ourselves in a situation comparable to being in a "broken down Winnebago up to your ankles in gasoline from a leaking tank, smoking a cigarette in each hand." Frankly, I'm always a little suspicious when an argument is supposedly justified by describing such ridiculous circumstances. And I also find it ironic that Berkun uses these examples in an article in which he also says, "diffusing bad thinking requires someone (probably you) to construct a healthier framework around the bad thinking that shows it for what it is." I think this article could use a healthier framework.

Some good news from bad

Rover is a brand of cars that has been manufactured in the UK for decades. The company recently ran into trouble and went into receivership (essentially Chapter 11, in US terms). This has been devestating for the local community but the BBC yesterday reported some positive news about the whole affair: redundant employees who are finding new careers in quite unexpected ways. One chap has taken to dog grooming; another plans to open a jazz cafe; and yet another is training to become a clinical hypnotherapist. He says:

I would never have had the guts to do this if I hadn't been forced out at Rover. I regret the closure because of what it has done to the local community and many people are struggling, but for me it has been a positive thing. After 15 years with the company I was almost institutionalised, but now I feel I am really using my brain.

Some clouds do have silver linings, after all.
 

Hamster With Nut Riding A Bell Pepper

  Hamster With Nut Riding A Bell Pepper 
  Originally uploaded by Udo Gleich.

And as people go nuts over _rebekka's "eve" shot, the greatest homage possible is paid by this image: parody!

Eve by _rebekka

  eve 
  Originally uploaded by _rebekka.

What an incredible photo, taken live without any Photoshopping! Amazing. Flickr is a mine of fantastic images like this.

Most-wished-for Firefox feature?

What's your most-wished-for Firefox extension? I think Michael Parekh has read my mind with his wish for a Web-based service to store all of my Firefox bookmarks and extensions, so I could have the same personalization in my browser regardless of the machine I'm using. (I use two different PC's for various functions, plus an iBook from time to time, and my wife's iBook when I'm nearer that than anything else.) Such a Web-based service would be fantastically useful. As Michael notes, Yahoo offers a bookmark service but it doesn't accommodate some Firefox-specific capabilities that make using that browser so much better than anything else out there. If you have a most-wished-for Firefox extension or service, head on over to Michael's blog and express yourself!

Peeping Tom x2

  Peeping Tom x2 
  Originally uploaded by cyberinsekt.

The myth of Peeping Tom is tied to the story of Lady Godiva, who rode through the streets of Coventry (my home town in the UK) in return for her husband, Leofric III, lowering taxes on the citizens. This picture shows a 12th century sculpture of Peeping Tom, who was said to be struck blind because he spied on Godiva as she rode through the city, and is mounted in one of Coventry's shopping precincts.

Can you spot why the picture's so funny?