Celebrity BB viewers drop by half

The launch of the new Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack attracted less than half the audience of last year’s regular star name format.
Overnight estimates showed 3.5m viewers watched the reality programme, compared with 7.3m who tuned into the first in the series of 2007’s celebrity version.

Nearly two million people switched off when the show ended on Channel 4 and continued on digital station E4.

Celebrity Hijack sees stars act as Big Brother to a house of “unknowns”.

…and somehow people are surprised that there are fewer viewers?

Having to change channel to watch the rest of a programme is probably enough to do it. Then there’s the relatively little publicity it’s gained – the prospect of celebrities just “dropping in” rather than staying and slowly going crazy isn’t quite as attractive.

Add to that, that it’s all getting a bit old and tired?

It’s inevitable.

Support for ad-tracking opt out

US privacy advocates and consumer bodies are seeking the creation of an opt-out list for internet users who do not want to be tracked by advertisers.
The “do not track” list would prevent companies from tailoring adverts based on a user’s web habits.

I really like this idea. If I want something, I will search for it. My web habits are unlikely to turn up anything I want to actually buy as while they are indicative of my interests… most of the stuff that would show up would end up being DVDs or toys or any number of other things that I would only buy with money I had spare.

And of course, when I fancied buying non-essential luxury items.

Plus I’ve never liked the idea of being tracked. If advertisers want to find out my habits and interests, they can damn well send me a questionnaire. I like those.

Star Trek film names Kirk actor

Little-known actor Chris Pine has been chosen to play the young Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movie.

Chris Pine was in the AWESOME film Smokin’ Aces. He was pretty good in it. I’ve not seen anything else he’s been in though.

NEW STAR TREK FILM CAST

  • Captain Kirk – Chris Pine
  • Older Mr Spock – Leonard Nimoy
  • Young Mr Spock – Zachary Quinto
  • Scotty – Simon Pegg
  • Nero – Eric Bana
  • Uhura – Zoe Saldana
  • Chekov – Anton Yelchin
  • Sulu – John Cho
  • Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy – Karl Urban

I’m…not sure how I feel about Simon Pegg playing Scotty. It could be great. Or it could be bad. I associate him with too many other things.

The same with Karl Urban too. I’m not sure how that’s going to work.

Also. Who’s this Nero guy?

Shadow lamps to connect friends

Shadows are being used by Japanese researchers as an non-intrusive way for friends to stay in touch.
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This seems like a really nice idea. I think people use facebook and twitter and other vaguely similar social networking sites, so that they have an awareness of what their friends are up to. Pervasive tab-keeping as it were. I know that I may not have an actual vocal conversation with my friends for ages and ages because I live in a completely different town to… well, all of them actually, but I know for the most part, what they are all up to thanks to blogs and facebook.

This, on the other hand, I think would be really great for people who aren’t familiar with all this new-fangled technology, much like the Wii is great for people who aren’t “gamers” but want to give it a go and have a bit of fun. It’s more accessible.

I can imagine grandparents or young children really getting something out of this, because it could just sit on a nearby table and keep them in touch with their families who might be elsewhere – like at work.

Big fat supercomputer!

The world’s fastest commercial supercomputer has been launched by computer giant IBM.
Blue Gene/P is three times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM.

The latest number cruncher is capable of operating at so called “petaflop” speeds – the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

Approximately 100,000 times more powerful than a PC, the first machine has been bought by the US government.

How cool is that? I’m imagining using Second Life on this machine or in fact any game. Maybe setting up a whole bank of shiny flatscreen monitors so that I can game, browse the net, play music, catch up on emails, use graphics programs and a bunch of other things ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

I think I’d need some kind of extra arm transplant or something to really enjoy it. 😀

Of course, I’m sure they’re going to use it for far more sensible and serious things.

Computer industry ‘faces crisis’

The computer industry faces a skills crisis, the president of the British Computer Society has told BBC News.

Unless steps are taken now, there will not be enough qualified graduates to meet the demands of UK industry, warned Professor Nigel Shadbolt.

Prof Shadbolt said there was increasing demand but decreasing supply of graduates in computer science.

As a computer science graduate, this story makes me giggle a bit. Mainly because I’m now working in an area nothing to do with computer science. In fact, studying computer science may well discourage graduates from going into that area when they enter the workplace. I know I certainly learnt to hate programming and a number of my fellow students learnt to hate computers entirely.

Coupled with a seemingly high drop-out rate for Computer Science degrees (I’m sure only about a third of the students I entered university with stuck around to graduate), I’m not surprised that there is this concern about a lack of graduates.

One solution would perhaps make Computer Science more attractive to female students – I was one of only two girls graduating with my particular degree, and there can’t have been more than 40 girls total graduating from my department. Alternatively, another idea would be to give oppotunities in IT related careers to people without Computer Science degrees, but relevant experience and expertise from other sources.

Loc8tor – tracking your stuff

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A new electronic gadget called the Loc8tor uses radio waves and multiple aerials, plus some fancy software, to locate postage stamp sized transmitters which can be attached to almost anything, within a range of up to 600 feet.

This thing sounds really useful. I know I put things down and then spend ages looking for them. It’d also come in handy when trying to find my glasses (if an incredibly small chip could be developed to attach to my glasses) as the loc8ter device is far easier to see when not wearing glasses than my glasses are.

This could especially be very useful for paticularly scatty people who have a heck of a lot of gadgets, keys and other small items.

Concrete monitor

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This screen comes from the people at Innovation Lab, who have embedded optical fibers that work like pixels into concrete. The optical fibers can be lit to create monochromatic images. Even more amazing, the optical fibers work with natural light as well as artificial light, making it effectively transparent. This technology has many applications for architecture and urban planning. I’m particularly interested in it’s application in transportation infrastructure, such as subway stations, highways, and sidewalks.

This is really cool and would could be used for advertising in places that have a lot of concrete, like car parks, or just to make them look less dreary. Another good use would be for information for pedestrians on the street, about stuff in the local area and offers in nearby shops. There are probably loads more nifty useful uses as well as the usual arty just looking cool kind of uses. 🙂