cpjackson.co.uk

A friend of mine told me a few months ago that she had downloaded the Sarah Connor Chronicles series that had just started in America – and recommended that I take a look. As always – I took ages to get around to it – and by the time I did it had already started on terrestrial TV!
Anyway – one of the reasons why I’ve left it so long is because I’m actually quite a fan of the original Terminator movies (Terminator 1, 2 and 3). Yes – I know I’m in a bit of a minority because everyone else seems to hate 3!
When I heard about the new TV series I thought “Oh – this is going to ruin it all”. So I eventually dragged myself to watch it and I was actually quite impressed with it. Maybe the first episode was actually higher-than-average budgetwith all the shoot-outs and explosions – but I reckon it will turn out to be quite a watchable TV show overall.

Overall I’d say give it a go – you won’t be disappointed.
(You can reserve Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD at Amazon – but it’s not out for ages ).

As you may know – there’s been quite a lot of controversy over the past few days – caused by Ashley Highfield pulling stats about linux users from thin air. Apparently he believes there are between 400 and 600 users of Linux in the UK who access the BBC.co.uk website… And according to Ashley’s logic – this means that the BBC are completely and fully correct producing a DRM crippled video player. (Ashley has recanted these stats and said ‘oops – actually it’s more like 40,000 – 90,000′).

There are various articles out there spewing comments about Ashley and his inaccurate figures – including one by an ex-employee. There’s also a petition. The problem is that most of the blog postings are pissed off about the 400-600 figure – and at the end of the day – this isn’t the issue.

The issue is that the BBC, a publicly-funded institution that acts on behalf of the UK TV licence payers, is bringing out the iplayer that will ONLY allow people to play BBC content on Windows PCs.

• It WONT allow you to play the content on your mac.
• It WONT allow you to play the content on your mobile phone.
• It WONT allow you to play the content on your linux box.
• It WONT allow you to play the content on your PDA.
• It WONT allow you to play the content on your home/car DVD player.
• It WONT allow you to play the content on your VHS recorder (due to DRM).

Linux is only a small part of the issue, yet Ashley wants to target Linux users because they are the ones making the fuss.

Ashley went on further to say that such a small minority (0.3% – 0.8%) of it’s audience does not need to be catered for…. Is this what Ashley thinks of the blind community (Approx 0.25% of the UK)?

I’ve had the pleasure of watching the Michael Moore film SiCKO the other day – and I’ve got to say that it’s his best film yet.

Investigating the American health service, the film highlights the inequalities in a world where money-is-everything. It describes people being left to bleed to death, unwanted heroes and unwanted patients being dumped at the side of the street.

I knew that American health care was a dodgy business – and that it was unachievably expensive for the poor – but the lengths that the insurance companies go to get out of paying is awful. It’s what I suspected – but I’ve never seen it highlighted like this before.

The film describes Canada, the UK, France and Cuba as examples of countries that offer free healthcare to their citizens, and it does make you grateful (as a citizen of the UK) for what we’ve got.

Overall it paints a very bleak picture for the USA if they decide to stay with their money-driven health service.

It really does come down to comparing it to the fire and police service: What would you say if you called the fire station up and they asked if you were insured before they could come out?

Wow – just seen this on losteastereggs.blogspot.com. I’ve got to admit that LOST is wearing a little thin these days… The plot never seems to advance much. I mean – in this latest episode all that really happened was that Kate and Sawyer escape… And that’s it.

I can remember reading a while ago that the LOST production team were going to set an end-date for the series, however I’ve kept trying in vain to find this out! It seems that they might have set a date, but not actually announced it.

One cool thing – that I didn’t even think of, was to reverse the audio of the freaky torture room.. Someone did this, and they produced the weird freaky voice … “Only fools are enslaved by time and space”. It seems that LOST are definately going down the time/space type thing, what with the Stephen Hawking book featuring fairly prominently in the episode too.

I really hope they don’t continue to drag LOST out too long… I mean, if they decide that season 6 is the ending, they could always carry on with series 7 as in What happens when they got home? What changed? Hurleys millions etc. The doc’s wife, Kate in prison etc. We can hope!

Technorati Tags: LOST, ending date, Stephen Hawking, only fools are enslaved by time and space

Just been reading on digg about the OSC Open Source Consortium slamming the BBC for locking in their on-demand TV with Microsoft.

I 100% agree with the OSC’s argument – the BBC’s charter says they are unbiased and yet they decide to use the services of a proven monopoly that is also under investigation by the EU?

I mean, really, there should be no argument over this content. The BBC produces it using public money, our licence fee, and therefore once the content is created it should be available int he public domain.

The programmes on the BBC should be available for everyone in the UK to download, whenever they feel like it, by using bittorrent.

The BBC seems to have forgotten that they are where they are because we, the UK public, pay for them.

The programmes belong to us.

Technorati Tags: BBC, OSC, Microsoft, slammed, DRM, on-demand

Yet more bullsh*t from a once-great UK telly program: Panorama. I watched the first few minutes, mainly due to there being nothing else worth watching, and I’ve exhausted my criminal minds, lost and prison break downloads… (Even Ugly Betty rather than this).

But what a load of rubbish Panorama was… To save you from being put through the torture yourself – it basically said that everyone is at risk from violent crime, and no-one wants to step in to help due to fear of reprisals and arrest… So whats new?

It then brought out a load of unfortunate stories, where people had tackled robbers and youths and either become a hero, or died.

I’ve got to admit that Tony McNulty MP telling us to jump up and down is just stupid, but then – when did MP’s say anything that does actually make sense? MPs live in a world so far removed from UK housing estates that they will never be able to understand them.

All I’ve learnt from this documentary is that society can’t help but wind itself up into a frenzy by hanging onto every word of the media.

The BBC should know better.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Panorama, Jump Up and Down, MP, Jeremy Vine, Tony McNulty

The BBC reports that the charity Headway are complaining that Top Gear was insensitive to people with Brain Injuries..

How politically correct can this country get? I mean – come on, is there no room for humour anymore? Everyone knows that Jeremy Clarkson is an arse, but a brain charity moaning because of a few throw-away comments like that is just stupid.

And then they roll out;

“It just glamorised fast driving and gives the impression people can make a full recovery from head injuries.”

No it didn’t! I thought the whole accident of Richard Hammonds brought home some clear points about driving fast: The faster you go – the more risky it is.

Richard Hammond survived the accident, however it was touch-and-go for quite a while when it happened. And he doesn’t quite have that same youthful look he used to have.

Good luck to Top Gear and it’s presenters I say.

Technorati Tags: Richard Hammond, Top Gear, crash, Jeremy Clarkson