Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Tonight! Borders, Oxford St (nearest tube Oxford Circus - though remember, there's still no Central Line) - 6:30 - 8pm - top floor. See here for details, though not many ('latest issues in Sci-fi writing', indeed ...)

Cherith Baldry (who some of you will know from BSFA night / conventions / etc, and whose new novel The Reliquary Ring is just out) is one of tonight's guests!

(as posted by tamaranth in her journal and anonymousclaire, reposted as I know there are some fannish folk reading this that don't read either of them...)

...and is just the same as last time...

Back in the early 90s I worked in a large telecoms research lab, helping to develop the broadband and wireless technologies we're just starting to see. One of my jobs was to maintain a report I wrote that tracked the work going on in merging computers and the broadcast industry - and one of the studies I followed was Time Warner Cable's experimental interactive TV project in Orlando, the "full service network", which mixed online services with video on demand.

Now AOL Time Warner is bringing back the full service network, and disguising it as a Tivo-style box (NYT link, so registration required) that can be used to push advertising to the end user. Which was one of reasons why the Orlando trial failed to gain much user acceptance in the first place...

So, they've done nothing for 7 years, and haven't learnt anything from the collapse of the advertising market and the rise of the internet demographic. Bright move guys.

AOL is another company that really needs to read World Of Ends.