I’m coming a little late to this – it’s something I meant to blog a while back but haven’t had time to. Salon writer Farhad Manjoo has written an excellent piece on interactive television spyware – how cable companies and makers of “personal video recorders” like TiVo have the potential to track every programme you watch (and every interactive TV feature like gambling or gaming you use) and send that information to advertisers so they can target you more accurately. He also deals in passing with the debate over whether future PVRs will allow you to skip “regular” ads or whether they will actually add new “interactive” ads.

David Burke of White Dot – one of the only people I know who appears to be following this issue regularly – points out the risk that, for example, political advertisers could use this technology in future to tailor their messages more precisely at each viewer, pandering to their prejudices. I am more worried that if advertisers know down to the individual home whether an ad is likely to work, they will eventually want to be able to heavily subsidise packages of cable programming aimed at the rich and will want to yank their ads (and their subsidy) for poorer households, so multi-channel TV will be even more expensive for those least able to afford it.

P.S. Sorry this is a Salon Premium article and there is no longer a “see for free” option, but a year’s subscription is just $18.50 if you accept ads. Moreover, Salon allows existing subscribers to give gift subscriptions to people for $20 (without ads) or $12.40 (with ads). If you would like me to sign you up just email me a note and credit my paypal account using the link on the R accordingly (no I won’t get any commission on that – Salon seems to have stopped its affiliate programme – but if you would like to slip me a few extra $ because you like my content, please do!).8100 lg mp3 ringtoneindian alcatel ringtone8250 ringtonessamsung ringtones a800ringtone nokia 62253155i free nokia ringtoneamerican missed ringtone one callringtone 3560 nokia 3520 Map

Azeem Azhar argues the BBC should make (some?) of its content open source. He has taken a certain amount of flak for this from some quarters but I think the basic idea is a sound one. The BBC because of the license fee is able to produce stuff that the open market can’t afford to – particularly online, where at the moment there just doesn’t seem to be enough money to be made to make a business case for public goods like virtual communities.

Historically it hasn’t shared its content or tools but with the growth of open source as an ideology perhaps it is time to think again. We’ve all paid for the material and technology the BBC produces – why not make it more accessible by making it available freely – to both commercial and not-for-profit organizations? Even if another company makes money out of BBC material we haven’t lost anything.

The BBC isn’t that good at commercially exploiting its material anyway – and when it is, it gets accused of stifling the commercial competition – it can’t win whichever way it goes.

There is one risk, however – if commercial companies online can get acres of excellent content free where is the incentive to make content of their own? We already see this on news sites where a lot of the stories are just slightly re-edited AP and Reuters stories. Well, one hopes they will innovate to differentiate themselves from both the BBC and other commercial providers who now also have access to the same content…

I confess that this is potentially a huge subject area full of controversial implications but I hope that it gets taken up and examined seriously at a higher level. Even if it is not broadly applicable for political or institutional reasons, the open source mentality might still be usefully applied in narrow areas.post fuck free moviemovies free erotic length fullpreviews hentai free moviefree hustler moviesfuck movies free longfucking free movies midgetsfree movie adult clipsbackgrounds desktop free moviesexy free movienude free movie starssex after hysterectomy bleedingsex swinger adult videosalfa teensnaked amanda bynes sexvideo minute porn clip 15 freesystem analysis and aircraft trendingadventurous sexamber sexual Map

The bad news is that they are being asked to pay £35 for them or send them back to the company’s creditors. The good news is that a company spokesman admitted they “had little solution if people refused to either return or pay for the box.”usa credit card accept0 interest cards rate creditcredit experts americanall free credit 3 reportsto card credit how acceptcredits thuraya addingaabc accreditation seminariesnaturopathic accreditation american medical board Map764 hero mp3afraid acceptance not mp3mp3 7650 nokiacidjazzed evening mp3mp3 none 77mp3 fiona addict apple9311 777 mp3pavements adele chasing mp3 Map

A report published recently into e-government by the British Department for Work and Pensions makes gloomy reading. It suggests (perhaps not surprisingly) that, ” only 8% of the working population said they would prefer to contact the government about benefits through the internet or email, rather than traditional channels. The most popular channel is face-to-face contact at the local office, closely followed by a telephone call.”

Of course this is a false comparison, as you might find you have to travel for a half an hour and queue for another half hour to meet someone and you might have to hang on the phone for ages to speak to them. I have always maintained that if one important aspect of e-government is cost saving or increased efficiency, some of those benefits should be passed on to the users to encourage them to use it. If the government guaranteed faster service online (or offered a slightly higher benefit for those who got it paid in electronically) people might be prepared to overlook the unfamiliarity of the transaction.

There’s a little information on the feasability of offering e-government services online via digital TV as well. So far the government is only offering a DTV gateway on the (expensive) Sky Digital platform. Where it might make a difference would be on Freeview, the new no-subscription DTV service. But alas the providers of Freeview have not built two way interactivity into their low-cost boxes, so anything more than “brochureware” government services will have to wait for a Freeview v.2.

Well it turns out your cable company can bring you something like this vision of the future, but you need a computer to view it and it is called the Internet.

I’ve always been fascinated by the future people predict and how it differs from the future we get…approval military faxless loans payday 100401 k paperwork loanstudent acs parents loanshomeloans 100 offsetadv loansloan rates stafford 2008springfield il auto center alc loannj loans 100 fix flipaes student pa loansamerican education services loans studenunderage fuck pics teenpussy ebony black cunts labia negrospy peeing cam photo girls hiddeninterracial cuckold moviesinterracial video quicktime trailer pornvideos women nude masterbating ofunderage nudity teenunderage girls nude extreme Map

The good news is that a company plans to offer a set top box by early next year that will bring consumers all 24 free to air digital TV channels in the UK for just £30. The bad news is that the company will be subsidising this box because it expects to get large sums from people gambling on sporting events. Just what the UK needs – more gambling…

(More on the new box here from ZDNet UK)2600 ringtones polyphonicpolyphonic ringtones free 3510iblink ringtone 18250p ringtonesalbert carrington7250 free download ringtone nokia2260 downloadable ringtone free nokianokia ringtone nokia 2260 free Map

The BBC-backed bid that will offer 24 free-to-air channels and a set top box to receive them costing less than £100 has been chosen by the government. The previous attempt to use broadcast (“terrestrial”) digital TV to sell pay TV – ITV Digital – was a failure. Since this bid doesn’t have as many channels it should provide better reception and because it isn’t trying to sell customers a subscription it should be much more successful in winning viewers.

I still have strong concerns about the large number of interactive platforms TV content providers have to write for, which makes it uneconomic to produce content, but at least it looks as if free to view digital TV is not dead as a proposition after the death of ITV Digital. In fact, according to the Guardian, removing the pay component will make the broadcast digital TV signal higher quality and available to more people.

A UK Government-sponsored report into the take-up of digital television appears to state the obvious. According to a BBC report, it says the Government must, “inform consumers about the benefits of digital TV” (which are not necessarily best promoted by the current players who want to sell expensive subscriptions) and particularly, “raise awareness of free-to-air services and equipment”, “deliver improved free-to-air public service broadcasting” and “ensure that a cheap free-to-air service is available”.

Fortunately it has given the go-ahead to the BBC to create some of those free-to-air services on TV, but I am concerned that they haven’t so far put the same emphasis on ensuring that public services are available and promoted through the interactive side of digital TV – I worry that “entry level” digital TV will concentrate on offering free-to-air TV channels rather than entry level connectivity to the Internet and interactive services.credit residential energy 2006colleges online acredited72 credit repairadvantage home line credit equityloans 3,000 for bad creditloans adverse uk creditcredit uk adverse mortgages0 credit card transfer rates Map