Status-Q

My friend Phil Ashby has long experience in the world of video production, both inside the BBC and independently. So it was with pleasure that I discovered his podcast Out of Vision. This targets quite a specific niche: it’s intended chiefly for those who make a living around Final Cut Pro, which is quite a lot of the video-production world now. (I hover humbly in the outskirts, being an enthusiastic user of Final Cut Express).

Anyway, Out of Vision is very nicely produced, with Phil interviewing a range of experts in the field about how recent changes in this world affect their real lives. If you know what an EDL is, or are considering the pros and cons of switching to a tapeless workflow, this is definitely for you.

Through a friend – thanks, Allan! – I have been able to try out Joost, the new peer-to-peer TV service being created by the guys who did Skype and Kazaa. I’m quite impressed – I’ve only watched little snippets so far but the experience is pretty good.

I haven’t found anything on there that I really want to watch yet. Even Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuits on Demand didn’t hold my attention for too long. Still, if they get some good content they seem to have a nice platform to distribute it. And I’m not exactly the average TV viewer…

(Click for more info – thanks to John for the link)

Many readers will know, but many others will not because she’s been keeping it quiet for months, that my wife Rose’s first novel will be published next spring. Since it’s now listed on Amazon.co.uk, though, the cat is probably out of the bag. The Blackstone Key is a thriller/adventure set in the late eighteenth century. It’s the first of (at least) a trilogy to be published in the UK & Europe by Little, Brown under the Sphere name, and in the U.S. & Canada by Simon & Schuster (Touchstone). It’s also being translated into German by another publisher. More news as things develop…

Some nice demos of the pretty new features coming in Apple’s next version of the OS can be found here.

Steve Jobs apparently said that Leopard will be available in October, and made a nice comparison with Vista: The Basic version will be $129. The Premium version will be $129. The Business version will be $129 and the Ultimate version will be $129. It’s all the same thing. “Most people”, he quipped, “will just go for the Ultimate version.”

Since Cisco’s logo represents the Golden Gate Bridge, perhaps Tesco’s represents the London Underground?

I had some great birthday cards last month. I think this was my favourite, though:

Many thanks to Kim and Robin

Hello… it’s Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells here… I wish to complain about a distressing grammatical error which gets on my nerves, and which is becoming increasingly common even on the BBC.

I’m referring to the verb to hang, as in ‘to hang by the neck until dead’, and in particular to its past, and past participle, form, which is, of course, hanged.

Somebody on the Beeb this morning was talking about a chap who should be hung, drawn and quartered. He meant, of course, hanged.

Meat is hung. People are hanged.

Thank you for your attention.