Pirate Radio in Northern UK

Not sure whether this upload is sanctioned to Google Video, but it is the only way people outside the UK can easily access a documentary broadcast Thursday 10th July by ITV 1 Yorkshire from 10:40pm to 11:10pm. Entitled "Is It Worth It?" is looks at the activities of non-licenced radio stations presently broadcasting throughout West Yorkshire, following Leeds station Radio Frequency. These latter-day pirates have fallen foul of media regulator Ofcom for their refusal to end their transmissions. Tony Blackburn, himself a radio pirate in the 1960s, offers an insight into this type of lawbreaking, with comment from a Scarborough MP who set up his own station 40 years ago. If, and when, municipal wifi gets going, I expect these guys to eventually switch technology. Thanks to Mike Barraclough for the spot.

Lets Learn Chinese

I can imagine this system of individual tuition probably works better that "Chinese by radio" lessons over shortwave from China Radio International. You can learn all kinds of languages on line. It reminds me of the old days when international broadcasting was full of stations trying to teach you their respective languages. The largest by far was the BBC. I see that a lot of the English By Radio material that used to be broadcast by the BBC World Service and its language departments has all be consolidated into a special BBC website these days.

Final note: I think the choice of music on the advert above was random. I recognise it as a variation on "The Holly and the Ivy" performed by George Winston on his December album. That goes way back to 1982 - one of the first CD's I bought. Does it fit? No.

Controversial Insight into Al Hurra

I don't care for the style of this CBS piece done together with a new organisation called Propublica. The anchor is so obviously going for the jugular you begin to pity the people being interviewed. Which they probably don't deserve. Even if only a small part is true, Al Hurra has truly slipped below the line of credibility. The problem is not so much the programming, but America's actions in the region they are trying to influences. Actions speak a lot louder than these pictures. So, from this side of the Atlantic, it seems very expensive at US$100 million a year! Of course the Broadcasting Board of Governors doesn't agree and Joaquin Blaya has responded in an equally firm tone. Propublica is pleased the BBG is now responding and has more questions. I am sure that Al Hurra's competitors are enjoying this one.

iPod Touch Remote

Looks like Apple has finally come up with a (free) wireless remote for the iPhone as well as the iPod Touch. But they are apparently not the first. Back in February we had examples in Amsterdam of people being able to switch off the lights in entire buildings with the iPhone. You don't need to speak Dutch to understand what's happening.




But is it real? No, it's not. Part of an advertising campaign to get students into IT. Nicely done though.

UK - Community Media White Paper

The UK's Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has just published the White Paper 'Communities in control: real people, real power', which contains a section on community media on pages 59-62, including a case study from Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB) on page 62. Among other things, it announces also an 'Empowerment Fund of at least £7.5 million to support national third sector organisations turn key empowerment proposals into practical action.'

The report can be downloaded from
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/886045.pdf

The government paper describes what they're trying to do and is inviting feedback.

Communities in control: real people, real power was launched on 9 July 2008. This White Paper is about passing power to communities and giving real control and influence to more people. Our key themes are power, influence and control: who has power, on whose behalf is it exercised, how is it held to account, and how can it be diffused throughout the communities we live in. It is about democracy, and how democratic practices and ideals can be applied to our complex, modern society.

The White Paper does not signify the end of work in this area. It is intended as a catalyst for change and its success will be measured over the medium term. Communities in Control contains an annex which gives an indication of plans for implementation. Some elements of the White Paper will be subject to formal consultation during the summer months. We will publish a full Implementation Plan shortly. Some of the policies within the White Paper will require legislation.
These will feature in the UK Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill, which forms part of the draft 2008/2009 legislative programme.

We welcome your thoughts on our White Paper, your feedback will shape future policy. To comment:

* send an email to communityempowerment@communities.gsi.gov.uk
* make a posting on our Communities in Control discussion forum
* respond to Hazel Blears' seven day empowerment blog



It looks like UK government is making extensive use of twitter.com, sometimes for shortperiods (reminds me of the short period radio station licences (RSL's). They say you can also keep up-to-date with empowerment news by following Communities and Local Government's 7 day twitter channel which will run from 9 to 18 July 2008 (excluding the weekends).

Broadcast Press Lunch

There's a broadcast press lunch in London tomorrow. Sounds like its going to be interesting, judging by the coverage its been getting. ;-) Now this is the way to report what the rich and famous are interested in.

"We vont to be alone"

If you're looking for an example of a company that does NOT believe in any form of collaboration, partnerships etc - and just wants to be alone in the world...look at this link. I find the text on that page incredible.

It is the policy of MAGNA Global and MAGNA Global Entertainment not to consider or accept unsolicited ideas, concepts, materials, information, proposals and the like. Any such unsolicited materials will be returned and/or deleted or destroyed, at our option. Our own people are constantly at work developing ideas, and as a result, we have found that ideas and other materials submitted by others have generally been used before or are otherwise familiar to our employees.


I guess they never want to be accused of stealing a good idea. Apparently they own them already. Reminds me of the great Greta Garbo's wish " I vont to be alone". Update in July 2009. The links have gone away and the original URL shows a rather smaller organisation than in 2008.

Scam Inflation

I have to laugh at the texts of the so-called advance-fee or 419 scams, many of which originate from West Africa. I note that the money being offered seems to be going up to completely daft proportions. This afternoon, someone offered to credit my SWIFT credit card, which doesn't exist, with the sum of 87 million pounds sterling. I must be going up in the world. Of course, sadly, I won't be sending the required bank account details and photo of my passport to the hotmail address residing somewhere on the planet. Actually, it is really a shame that these scams are still going - I am just amazed that anyone falls for them. The wikipedia page is full of people who thought their luck had changed. Never, Never, Never.

DRM Mystery - Bit quiet in Plymouth

In April of last year, BBC Devon started a 12 month trial of DRM, the digital system developed in the mid-1990's and designed to replace long, medium and shortwave. To date, it has been the only UK trial of the system for a domestic service - VT Communications have used Orfordness to beam into the rest of Europe on 1296 and RTL Luxembourg has been fiddling with a UK service (without much success). 100 volunteers were given DRM radios in Devon and both the BBC and National Grid Wireless intended to publish the results after the end of the trial. Well it's now July 2008 so we have to assume that most of the trials have been concluded.

UPDATE July 6th. Mike Barraclough reports below: The tests are still continuing it seems, at the end of April they told participants: "We will be keeping the test transmission on-air for a little while longer as there are some demonstrations we need to do and some final technical results we need to collect. From the 30th April, however, we will not be able to guarantee that the transmission will be on-air or stable on a permanent basis, although it is likely to be present most of the time until at least the early summer. There was a report of the 855 transmissions being received in Tavistock on the drmrx forum June 24.

However, may be conclusions have already been drawn, judging from the passage in the Digital Radio Working Group interim report.

Under these proposals all (radio) services will be migrated from the MW
platform onto either DAB or FM. Therefore the mediumwave frequencies could be allocated for other uses. We recognise that further consideration will need to be made of the usage of LW for radio services.

So DRM, "Doesn't Really Matter"? If it had been a resounding success we would have surely heard all about it by now.

Traffic in Iran

Never mind about Press TV, the English language TV network from Iran. Just watching the traffic in the Iranian capital city is entertainment in itself.

Telecoms for Disaster Response

The first item of this TV Telecom item this week highlights the work of Telecom without frontiers.

Longdistance Links - the WILD project

I am very interested in the work being done by the University of California at Berkeley and their WILD project. They have been experimenting in several countries, including Ghana in the deployment of modified wifi technology to build very long distance Internet links out into remote areas of the country. 20-80 kms seems feasible now. It is exactly what community radio stations need, and the advantage is that in most cases they already have the tower in the place!

Sprint Product Placement

Let's be frank. Most of the product placements in Hollywood are so obvious the sponsor should be paying us to watch the film. I see that Sprint in the US is paying 1000 people 20 bucks to put the new Samsung Instinct phone in a home video. Blatant product placement? You betcha. Make sure you show the phone to be working and having coverage....currently a problem for many rural Sprint customers I understand.

Navteq is Nokia's

From Engadget

In the brave new world of GPS, Nokia and NAVTEQ are one as are TomTom and Tele Atlas. At least that will be the picture within 5 business days. With the European Commission's "unconditional approval" granted, Nokia can now close the deal on its planned, $8.1 billion acquisition of NAVTEQ.

What makes the whole thing a bit more interesting is that Google signed a long term agreement with Tele Atlas on Monday which gives it access to Tele Atlas maps for use in any of Google's mobile, desktop, and on-line offerings. A move likely to put Android in even greater competition with Nokia which opted out of the Open Handset Alliance. Good times

I'd put Navteq in the same boat as Norton (see below). They are still dealing with navigation products not a navigation service. Remember, if you shell out 300 Euros for their maps of Europe, don't dream that if you change your car you can swap out the discs for one that will work in the new motor. Even if the maps come from the same source. Stuff the updates, especially with the economy biting into road building.

Guardian Future of Journalism Series

Have been comparing some of the talks given recently on the future of journalism. With paper circulation figures dropping in many countries (though there are exceptions like the Telegraaf in the Netherlands), having a strategy has never been more important than now. I like the way Jeff Javis talks through the options to members of the Guardian teams. So many talks recently have been the rather tired "User Generated Content is going to finish the Biz" line. UGC is one form of collecting contributions, but the future of many organisations is more linked to their wider role in society/community than just raw input from a tiny group of active contributors. Most people tell boring stories. Watching and listening to them is like watching paint dry. Jarvis is a cut above the rest (see video).

Pouzilhac new boss at RFI

From the outside, it looks like France 24 has, in effect, taken over Radio France Internationale, the international broadcasting radio service. France 24 is barely 18 months old and is a combined TV and Internet operation running in 3 languages. RFI has been around a lot longer, but is definitely more of a traditional radio network.

The chairman of France 24, Alain de Pouzilhac, has now been appointed the President of RFI. There has been talk of combining several of France's external broadcasters - looks like it has become a reality. Unlike his predecessors, Alain comes from the commercial world, so it will be fascinating to see what changes he makes at RFI, which is a classic state-financed broadcaster. Just compare the website of RFI with that of the commercial mobile/broadband operator Orange. I have been installing software for use on a French laptop that is off to Benin next month. The feeds from Orange are easy to use and configure, sitting on the Vista desktop. Good luck with the puzzle surrounding RFI audio.

He was born in Sète in the South of France on the Mediterranean coast in 1945. A self-made man, his entire career has been pursued in communications.
He has been in the advertising business since the age of 23 when he joined Publicis as an assistant account executive in 1968. A year later, he joined the newly established Paris DDB office and remained there until 1975 as an Account Supervisor. In 1976, he joined the Havas Group and was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the sixth French agency, Havas Conseil. In 1982, he became Chief Executive Officer of the company and developed Havas Conseil in Europe, which became one of the top five leading European networks and the advertising agency leader in France.
HCM became the first advertising network in Europe and featured among the leading ten in the world. In 1989, Alain de Pouzilhac was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Eurocom.

By the beginning of the 1990s the celebrated merger initiated by Alain de Pouzilhac between Eurocom and RSCG paved the way for a truly global network, Euro RSCG Worldwide of which he was nominated Chairman and CEO.

In December 2005, he was appointed CEO of the Chaîne Française d'Information Internationale ("CFII"), which later became France 24. In his spare time, Alain de Pouzilhac is very keen on sport, particularly football (soccer), tennis, rugby and yachting. He is married to Carole and has three children.

BMW Scam - Interesting 419 variation

We all get spammed with "news" of how we have won a lottery. The amount is usually obscene and is CAPITALISED IN CASE YOU CANNOT BELIEVE IT. It is often the story of someone who has died and left a bank account unclaimed. But lately, the scams are changing the story. I got this one from "BMW", which claims it has something to do with BMW and clean energy. I didn't know that Stamford, Lincolnshire was so close to London as the letterhead claims. So yes, of course, I will share my bank account details immediately. What a nice surprise!

Russian Office Sync Swimming

Looks like this Russian office has a lot of time on its legs and is practising for next month. From the Russian RUtube, but you don't need subtitles and it is safe for work! Tip of the hat to Gabe at Mobuzztv for the discovery.

Dance Power

The UK branch of the French mobile phone company Orange has announced the launch of a mobile phone charger prototype that is powered by dance energy! Working with renewable energy specialists, GotWind, who were also responsible for last year’s Orange Wind Charge and this year’s Orange ReCharge Pod, Orange also commissioned research into a kinetic energy portable phone charger that would harness the energy created by festival revellers dancing to their favourite bands to ensure a clean and renewable energy source.

Whilst the research of the Orange and GotWind team is still in its infancy and continues to be developed, Orange has already built fully functioning prototype models of the Dance Charge that were tested at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, taking place at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset last week.

The Dance Charge prototype weighs in at only 180 grams. It is approximately the same size as a pack of cards and the same weight as a mobile phone. The Dance Charge unit comes encased in an elasticated, black, neoprene strap with Velcro attachments which is attached over the wearer’s bicep in a similar fashion to a runner’s arm-mounted mp3 player.

As the user moves their arms along to the music – a specially designed system of weights and magnets, similar to that found in kinetic energy watches, creates an electrical current which provides a top-up of charge to a storage battery. So whilst festival goers are out dancing to their favourite bands, the charger stores dance generated power in the reservoir battery, ready for when they return to their tent each night to recharge their phone.

Ben Jandrell from Shropshire, UK founded Gotwind in 2006 with the purpose of sharing his 25 years experience in the design and making of small scale renewable energy projects, focusing in particularly on wind and solar power.

Ben launched his website http://www.gotwind.org initially as a hobby to share his passion with the world, as renewable energy has become more and more prevalent, Gotwind and its unique DIY approach has received a lot of interest worldwide.

Personally I see an application in Africa, not only for dancers but simply for people who walk a lot as part of their trade and have a need to be connected - either through a mobile phone or the FM radio inside around 25% of all mobile phones sold in that region of the world. No word on the cost.

All this reminds me that in 2001 the inventor of the wind-up radio, Trevor Baylis completed a 100 mile walk across the Namibian Desert demonstrating some electric Shoes and raising money for the Mines Advisory Group. The "electric shoes" used piezoelectric contacts in the heels to charge a small battery that can be used to operate a radio transceiver or cellular telephone. The shoes were invented by Dr Jim Gilbert, a lecturer in engineering at Hull University, who was asked to develop an idea by Trevor Baylis, But I don't think the Electric Shoe Company managed to make the idea into a commercial product.

Norton Symantec Reality Gap

Had to laugh about a promotional offer in my intray today. Even if my PC not only slowed down but went into reverse, I would never dream of calling Symantec's customer service. When I had Norton software, the only advice I ever from from their "experts" was to deinstall-reinstall their software or someone reading from the FAQ's I later discovered on-line. These guys need a serious reality check. Based on past experience, I would never let any of these guys near my PC.

The early days of Norton were great - utilities that defragged the hard disk before they became standard bits of any operating system. But since the take-over by Symantec, Norton AntiVirus & Firewall products have grown like a cancer, more clumsy every year. I had situations were I had subscriptions to virus-prevention updates, but the basic program was no longer compatible. And I couldn't get the on-line forms to recognise a Dutch VAT number. In frustration, I paid the VAT. Pleased I went to Kaspersky instead.