Digital TV
I had a dream last night that hundreds of new TV channels showed up on digital TV tuners. Weird.
I haven’t yet upgraded to digital TV. I’m in the unfortunate position of:
(a) having bought a 4:3 CRT TV at precisely the wrong time, about 7 years ago, just before the prices plummeted when widescreen LCDs and plasmas went mainstream, and apart from occasionally having a flickering line at the top (I think due to a bump while moving), that TV works admirably;
(b) not particularly wanting Yet Another Box and Yet Another Remote to have to deal with; and
(c) not having huge amounts of cash to throw around just now to buy a shiny new telly.
So I’m umming and ahhing. I suppose at some stage HD set-top boxes will become cheap enough that it becomes a no-brainer just to get the extra channels. Alternately a Digital Video Recorder might be the way to go.
I find the whole Freeview push amusing. All those ads. More than one person has asked what it actually means. They seem underwhelmed when I tell them it’s just digital TV. (And Freeview’s insistence that it’s all free is undermined somewhat when you point out that well, they’re not giving away set-top boxes, you do have to pay for them.)
The analogue signal won’t get switched off in Melbourne until late-July 2013, so I guess there’s a fair bit of time to continue procrastinating, but it would certainly be nice to get ABC2, and solve my slight ABC1 reception problem.
- Unbelievable. This article explains digital TV, but completely fails to mention that you must have an HD tuner (not an SD one) to get most of the new channels.
- Rob Kemp’s take on it
Geek Idol
I’ve had few real idols; people of whom I could genuinely say “I want to be like them.”
In my early-to-mid 20s, Ben Elton was one of them. Amazingly funny, both on stage and in his writing. I wanted to write stuff that was half as good as his books, but never quite managed to write anything that was engaging enough to last over the length of a novel. My best attempt was The Year 2031, and even that wasn’t terribly long.
Ten years earlier, it was Tony Crowther. He was perhaps five years older than me, and a game programmer extraordinaire, writing hit after hit on the Commodore 64. I loved his game Blagger, and the sequel Son of Blagger, then got through Monty Mole (but only with help from a walkthrough). For a while I was hooked on Potty Pigeon, then Loco, which I enjoyed more than its astoundingly similar-looking followups Suicide Express and Black Thunder.
After that I moved off the Commodore 64 onto other things, and lost track of him and his games.
I suppose I dreamt in some ways of writing my own games and making a fortune from it. Back in those days many commercial games were written by solo programmers, or small teams. These days the gaming industry is dominated by borg-like big development studios, and Suits.
The other week I was in MagNation and noticed a copy of Retro Gamer which featured an interview with the man, as well as a big feature on Pacman. Wow. I was in a rush and made a note to go back and buy it the next day.
When I went back in, it was gone. Replaced by the next edition. I asked if maybe it was lurking somewhere in the shop. Nope. Everywhere else I looked was the same. Gone.
I had a look online. There are quite a few articles about Crowther, but most of them are reprinted from the 80s. I was also interested to know what he was up to these days, and what he thinks looking back at those old games — precisely the sort of thing Retro Gamer does well when they find people to interview.
I could order the mag from the publisher, of course. It would cost 5 pounds. Fair enough. But with 6.50 postage (!) it’d be a total of 11.50, or about $25 — double the Australian retail price.
While I was pondering that, Rae (who had been kindly checking newsagents near her work for it) pointed out I could look on Ebay, which was a brilliant idea. I found a copy for UKP 7.70 including postage, about $16. Much more reasonable. I’m eagerly awaiting its arrival from the UK.
In the mean time, I’ve discovered that Crowther has in fact been assimilated into the borg that is Electronic Arts. One of the games he worked on recently-ish was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which was one of the last games I bought for the XBox.
And me? Well, I did start writing a few computer games, but never quite finished any of them. But I did end up making a living out of writing software.
Who were your childhood idols? Where did they end up? Did you get to be like them?
Old names
Was just watching the footy and noticed that the Sydney Swans have the initials of their old name — SMFC — on their jumpers near the back of the neck. Had previously noticed that the Bulldogs also have this — FFC.
Collingwood doesn’t seem to have it. How many other teams do? Is it a heritage thing? Only the teams that have changed their names? Maybe the footy experts reading will know.
Hmm, I wonder if there are present-day teams from Kerang or Korrumburra that go by the initials KFC.
I am danielbowen. danielbowen I am.
Every so often, some new online service will present itself. Some turn out to be duds, but some turn out to be pretty compelling. As most of them are free, it’s often handy to grab your name early on while it’s available, in case it becomes useful later.
In the prehistoric days of the net, I used a nickname. But I went off that, and switched to the same alias that usually matched my corporate email name: dbowen. So back when Excite was a portal and email service that people actually used (as opposed to a the ghost town it is now), I managed to nab the dbowen user on there, as well as a bunch of other, more obscure services.
At some stage it got too hard, and I switched first to dfbowen, then to danielbowen. Certainly longer, but this is an easier one, and is also more readily identifiable with me.
There are obviously other Daniel Bowens around online, but I seem to have usually managed to beat them to the punch on this stuff. I’m obviously more of a geek than they are. The most recent was Facebook, but here’s a list of the main places I’ve grabbed my name:
- danielbowen.com — blog… and really, the only one of these that I truly own
- danielbowen at gmail.com — now my main personal email — I periodically get emails for one of my namesakes here. The same logon is used for a multitude of other Google services
- danielbowen at yahoo.com — an email address I no longer use, but it’s the same profile used for YahooGroups, and also for…
- flickr.com/photos/danielbowen — my Flickr photo feed
- danielbowen at hotmail.com — I don’t use this for email, but it is my Passport logon, for various (mostly Microsoft) services. Someone’s got this one mixed up too, as I’ve noticed an influx of Match.com dating service emails, apparently directed at a namesake in Western Australia.
- twitter.com/danielbowen — the Twitter feed, providing useless snippets of information, 140 characters at a time
- friendfeed.com/danielbowen — I don’t really use this very much, but it combines the blog, Twitter, Flickr, geekrant.org posts, and my Google News EgoSearch into one handy stalking package
- User:Danielbowen — my Wikipedia user page. I dabble in Wikipedia, undoing obvious vandalism when I see it, and occasionally adding things to articles
- facebook.com/danielbowen — but note, I don’t really use it that much at the moment. Mostly Scrabble, and keeping up with friends that I actually know in real life, and a handful I know well online. Stick to the blog/Twitter/Friendfeed if you want to stalk me.
What’s your handle? Do you have a single one you use online? Have you missed out on your preferred logon on some services, and had to compromise, or have you got something reasonably unique?
Quick things
Why is Westpac bank turning into my mother? Do they really expect to get more customers like this?
Great quote:
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
– Robert J. Hanlon
Star Trek: all creeds and colours of humanity, in a spirit of co-operation and harmony, working together at hating the Romulans.
This trailer for the movie Knowing… doesn’t really make me want to see it, but if the train carriages look familiar to Melburnians, that would be because it was filmed here, and they used old Melbourne Hitachi carriages for filming, though apparently the subway scene is set in New York City.
Life is high resolution
You know you’ve been watching too many online videos when you look at something in real life and think “Wow that’s high resolution… and the motion is so smooth…”
Alphabetical music meme
For those so inclined, here’s a music meme.
Take your iPod, or alternative daggy unfashionable non-Apple MP3 player, or even your music collection on your computer.
Pick a song, maybe one you like at the moment, doesn’t really matter which one.
Using the alphabetic list of songs in your iPod/player/computer, list that song and the following 9 in alphabetical order. What do you get?
- Grey in LA — Loudon Wainwright III — I still really like this; the lyrics make me chuckle every time I hear it.
- Grey Skies over Collingwood — Weddings Parties Anything (live) — a more local view. Did they actually write this, or was it a Strange Tenants song first? It certainly suits the Weddoes.
- Grindstone — Hunters and Collectors — another hard working Hunners song.
- Groovin’ Slowly — John Butler Trio — back from when he had a Trio.
- Growing Up (Falling Down) — The Living End — I know this one well, as it’s on my “Loud” playlist at work, for when I want to drown out surrounding noise and concentrate on something.
- Guitar and Pen — The Who — I’d forgotten about this song. Don’t hear it very often. Seems to be about what songwriters go through trying to write good songs. (This MP3 came from a CD of “Who Are You” which is about the fuzziest, lowest fidelity disc I have. Can only hope the remastered version was better.)
- Guitar Flute and String — Moby — a nice little instrumental piece
- Guitar Rag — BB Bronzy — an ancient blues number
- Gun — Weddings Parties Anything — an earlier WPA track that I haven’t heard much. Good stuff.
- Gunnamatta — Paul Kelly — another (mostly) instrumental track, PK’s tribute to the beach
What I find interesting about this there’s a good chance you’ll hear (and gain a new appreciation for) artists and/or songs you don’t play very often, and from a range of artists and styles. You may even find the same song by different artists, as well as possibly songs along similar themes, due to the first name in the title being similar.
Who else will have a go? Leave a comment or trackback.
The General
A few weeks ago we watched Buster Keaton’s The General the other day. It’s public domain, a free download from the Internet Archive.
Very funny stuff, and some quite remarkable stunts considering they had so few safety precautions compared to nowadays.
I had been pondering if it was rude to talk during a silent movie.
The conclusion was: yes. It may not stop you hearing the dialogue, but it does interrupt your concentration.
Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr is also on my list.
