Anyone who thinks print offers a future in publishing should ponder this: Britain's biggest banks blame BBC blogger, business editor Robert Peston, for wiping £17bn of the value off their shares, thus contributing to chancellor Alistair Darling having to dip his hand into taxpayers' pockets for £500bn to tide the banks over.
Downtime cannot recall a time when the dead tree press moved such mountains. Downtime reckons Peston deserves a raise for signalling the triumph of NuMedia.
Following its entry into the enterprise market Google is now offering parental services. Google has introduced a system that tests whether e‑mail users are drunk before they send e-mails.
The Mail Goggles system asks users simple mathematical questions to provide e¬‑mailing's equivalent of the breathalyser. This system only works in the wee small hours, automatically activating late at night on weekends, and is designed to stop people sending e-mails that they will regret the next day.
Downtime is considering its own system that can identify whether journalists are drunk when they write Downtimes.
In these times of economic hardship, Downtime knows there is a responsibility for comic IT columns to resist bipartisanship.
However, it is becoming difficult to maintain this stance as the American election 2008 - or Election 2.0 - hoists Sarah Palin into the limelight.
YouTube has been a feature of this election from the get-go, with Obama girl boosting Obama's credentials, but the McCain campaign must be wishing the internet could be turned off.
A litany of choice Palin clips are circulating cyberspace. The strangest is probably a video of Palin attending a service at her Pentecostal church with the preacher calling for witches and Palin's enemies to be defeated.
But perhaps most worrying for the McCain team is a clip of Palin explaining her unique Alaskan foreign policy qualifications. "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border."
ITV revealed last week that it had invested in the vanguard of television advertising.
In the heady future, ITV will be able to embed advertising into television shows, getting round the problem of pesky viewers channel-hopping to avoid being bombarded with advertising.
Simon Fell, head of future technology at ITV, told The Times, "We are trialling it online, where it is a manageable area and allows us to get feedback from both advertisers and viewers. It gives us another tool in the arsenal, and it is subtle."
ITV must make money somehow, and it would be churlish to be too critical, but it would seem unwise to talk about the new technology as adding to the "arsenal".
Viewers might feel understandably aggrieved when Fell, or perhaps ITV's head of present technology, eventually fires the new advertising bombs into their homes. They might decide to cut off his supply lines.
As usual, the Microsoft presentation hit a glitch. But at IP08, it was not Microsoft's fault. You can blame BT.
The throngs were waiting for a speech from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to be piped in from Southbank to the IP08 viewing room in Earl's Court. But the ISDN link was not up. Not in the morning. Not at lunch.
So three questions for BT.
As this was an IP event, why ISDN? Second, why was the contingency plan to record Ballmer's speech and courier the tape across town? Third, what does this say about BT's confidence in its 21st Century Network? Answers on a postage stamp, please.
Subscribe to this blog
Recent Comments
bill lutchma on South Cambridgeshire beco... : Course it's rubbish, everybody knows I'm the only ...
Yen on Cern: bringer of the apoc... : This will be good to embarrass their children with...
Taytelbaum M on Shanghai police reminds t... : A densed population calls for densed measurements....
Jeff Davis on It's my password and I'll... : This story just highlights how most web sites (not...
John Hawthor on Rival to the Google thron... : The fresh and rapidly expanding science vertical e...
Andy Hawkins on British sports people lie... : Do we really need the annoying adverts complete wi...
Darren on You know when you've had ... : With reference to the 'Lilly-livered law..' story:...
Rob Falconer on Photo story: Government C... : 1) William Archibald Spooner shows off his “rawful...
Valérie on Photo story: Government C... : 1) Of course sharing a jacket has to be more eco-f...