• The Ruby in the Smoke

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    3–5 minutes

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    5 comments on The Ruby in the Smoke

    Lately I’ve been seeing many people cursing the name of AA Gill (a TV critic for the Times), declaring that if they see his name, they skip to the next page. Given that I don’t watch any British television, I haven’t had much cause to join in on the cursing until now. I quite enjoyed…

  • Watching and Playing

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    1–2 minutes

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    Usually I crack around Christmas and actually write a whole series of posts, perhaps due to the complete lack of work. And in fact I have several hundred words of notes lying around in various text files on my desktop, glowering at me whenever I press F11 on my keyboard and watch all of my…

  • Belgian Split

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    1–2 minutes

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    The ghost of Orson Welles strikes again – according to the BBC, ‘the Belgian public television station RTBF ran a bogus report saying the Dutch-speaking half of the nation had declared independence.’ Lots of faked footage of celebrations, traffic jams, and 2600 calls were made to a phone number given out during the show, which…

  • Post Office

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    2–3 minutes

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    3 comments on Post Office

    Try as some might to avoid the rest of humanity, there are two places where you’re obliged to spend time with them – post offices, and planes. Nice segue into a weblog post about both, eh? (well, the one about planes might have to come a bit later) I had to pick up a special…

  • Wii

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    1–2 minutes

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    I have my Wii, preordered from Woolworths about three weeks ago. If I tried ordering through Amazon or Play.com, there’s no change I’d have it today. High street retail clearly still outranks the Internet, at least in some areas.

  • Notes on the Futuremedia TV conference

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    1–2 minutes

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    “No-one’s watching TV any more, and even worse, all this user-generated content is killing us.” That was the cheerful attitude at the C21 Futuremedia TV conference I went to last week. The audience was composed mainly of TV executives, with a smattering of smug ‘internet people’ like myself, who alternately confirmed their worst fears and…

  • Shamisen Serendipity

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    2–3 minutes

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    I don’t listen to the radio any more, and I don’t listen to music TV either. This makes me dependent on other forms of media (movies, TV shows, YouTube) and other guides (blogs, friends) to help me find my music. What I’ve discovered is that I’m encountering much more eclectic music this way, and interestingly,…

  • Notes on the BBC Audio Drama Festival

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    1–2 minutes

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    3 comments on Notes on the BBC Audio Drama Festival

    On Tuesday, after about five hours of sleep following the Second Life ARG panel, I found myself at the BBC Audio Drama Festival in London. As usual, I was due to give a talk about ARGs. I did think it was a little strange that I was invited to speak, because while we do have…

  • …in Second Life

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    1–2 minutes

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    It’s late notice, I know, but I’m going to be in Second Life tonight at midnight, talking about Perplex City, ARGs and (unsurprisingly) Second Life. It’s part of the Second Life Future Salon, and hosted by the Electric Sheep Company. You can find out more here. Also, you don’t need to be in SL to…

  • Where’s Adrian? (The Sequel)

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    1–2 minutes

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    3 comments on Where’s Adrian? (The Sequel)

    Next week, I’m speaking at a couple of conferences on Perplex City in London. Can you guess I didn’t get much notice? Anyway, if you happen to be going to either, please say hi! Tuesday November 28th: BBC Audio Drama Festival. I’m speaking on the Gaming panel, which is at 9:30am and also repeated at…