Friday, February 23, 2007

Murdoch in trouble

Is the spat between Rupert Murdoch and Virgin Media a sign that the Sky Empire is in trouble?
In this age when everyone wants to be on as many platforms as possible, Sky is pulling itself off cable and planning to take it's News and Sports News off Freeview - reducing the potential audience on two fronts.
It means that advertisers will be looking for lower rates and possibly indicates concern within the Murdoch empire. Clearly there is so much concern about the potential damage that cable and Freeview are presenting to satellite that a brave (and misguided?) attempt is being made to pull everyone onto one exclusive platform. Looks like desperate measures to me; too many people have already made their digital choice and they're unlikely to change now.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Call me grandad

I am now officially a grandad. My son, Wesley, and his wife, Deborah, have a new baby son. They've called him Alexander John. I don't know if this means that they hope he'll be great and conquer the world or if he'll have a ragtime band.
Today he's tiny and weighs just 6lbs 15oz, utterly dependent on the care of his parents. What he will be, will be forged by the events of the next few short years.

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Friday, February 09, 2007

Psychic eh?

A lack of visitors has forced the closure of a Psychic Museum in York. Shouldn't they have known that before it opened?

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Pointing the finger

You have to be careful when pointing an accusing finger - because you point three at yourself at the same time.
Jeremy Paxman had a moan about the BBC over its poor green credentials. His colleague, Gavin Esler, made this comment in his Newsnight daily email this afternoon:

Imagine my surprise this morning opening my copy of The Times to read that my esteemed colleague Jeremy Paxman has offered a devastating critique of the BBC's failures to be Green enough, failures on recycling, failures to cut power consumption, failures to help save the planet.

Great stuff, I thought. Then imagine my surprise because in the BBC office Jeremy and I share with Kirsty and Emily, the computer and monitor (which we also share) were left switched on all night. The culprit? Hmmm. Who could it possibly be wasting all that electricity? Well, the last log-in that I could discover was "Paxmanj." Any ideas?

Never mind Jeremy - at least you can save on one Christmas Card next year - an environmentally friendly gesture of course.