Category: Stories

  • Why BBC3, BBC4?

    by

    Conservative culture front bencher Jeremy Hunt is asking what’s the point of BBC3 and BBC4? It’s a good time to ask the question. In an interview with the Independent, Hunt queried why £100m was being spent, merely to attract “very, very small” audiences. This is some way short of calling for the channels to be…

    Continue reading »

  • Whatever happened to the email app?

    by

    Musings on the state of email clients. Which might have something to do with the state of email… Is the email program dead? Did the whole world just migrate away from Hotmail over to Facebook when we weren’t looking? Does anyone else care? Weirdly, the answer seems to be yes, yes, and no. Email has…

    Continue reading »

  • Home streaming is ‘killing music’

    by

    Two weeks ago a US market research company caused a panic in the music business when it reported sales of MP3s had declined. DRM has all but disappeared from digital music, while music catalogs and retailer choice have grown… and yet the volume of digital song sales fell. Ironically, it’s the major labels’ darling Spotify…

    Continue reading »

  • Mystic Met Office abandons long range forecasts

    by

    The Met Office has confirmed it is to abandon long range weather forecasts, finally acknowledging criticism. The most recent forecasts were so inaccurate, that even the BBC is reconsidering whether to appoint an alternative supplier, such as Accuweather, after 88 years of continuous service from the 1,700-strong MoD unit. The Mystic Met predicted a barbecue…

    Continue reading »

  • Photographers rue Mandy’s copyright landgrab

    by

    A little-reported corner of the sprawling Digital Economy Bill reduces photographers to serf status – and concerns are rippling into the wider community. Photographers say bad wording and technical ignorance are to blame for Clause 42, calling it a “luncheon voucher” for greedy publishers. “The Bill contains no deterrent to the creation of orphans, no…

    Continue reading »

  • LibDems score copyright coup

    by

    The LibDems’ surprise amendment to strengthen UK courts’ powers over digital copyright infringement passed late last night, despite Labour and Tory opposition, replacing the government’s original, preferred proposal in the Digital Economy Bill. Out goes the ability of the Minister to extend copyright legislation by statutory instrument – something earlier Ministers have already exercised, in…

    Continue reading »