FrankArr
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Tuesday, 27 December 2005 |
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My Memories of the late Kerry Packer
The big news of the day has been the death of Kerry Packer. I posted earlier ths morning, before anything was online about the news. By the end of the day, that's all you can find. It's funny reading the news on all the media outlet - they are all being kind and respectful, like Australia's richest man, media mogul Kerry Packer, dead at 68 I have my own experience of Mr Packer. It happened a few years back, during my time at ninemsn. I was the CTO of the newly formed venture and I would do the rounds, meeting the executives from our parents, which were mainly PBL executives. One project I was involved in, was setting up a demo of WebTV for Kerry Packer, back in 1998. Microsoft had just purchased WebTV and the local folks were keen to introduce it to Australia, BUT they wanted the seal of approval from the big man. I worked with engineers at both Channel 9 and WebTV. We arranged a live satelite TV feed direct from Los Angeles. We tricked a modifed WebTV box to dial a local phone number and then connect back to the WebTV servers in Mountain View. We tested this over and over again. I spent a few long hours in the executive boardroom over at Channel 9 in Willoughby getting this demo just right. We rehearsed a demo scenario and made sure the path through the demo worked flawlessly. After a few days, we were ready and a time and date was set for the demo to the big man. The demo was set for 1pm. I arrived at 10am to make sure all the bits were in place. I connected, refreshed the electronic program guide with the latest from LA, make sure it was in sych with what we were watching (which it was). We rehearshed again and again and it was perfect. We were ready. 1pm rolled around. No Kerry Packer. 2pm. Still no Kerry. A few frantic phone calls and we had a new ETA of 3pm. OK, we adjuted our demo to included the shows that were going to be on at that time - no problem, we could cope. While we were preparing, the catering arrived, including lamingtons, a big cream sponge cake with pink icing, sandwiches, cocktail franks, tea and coffee. It was quite surreal. 3pm rolled on and still no Kerry. The phone rang. It was his driver. They were not far, and Kerry wanted a roast beef sandwich. We relayed the message to the catering folks and waited. 3.30pm and Kerry arrived with his people. He sat down at the boardroom table, put his feet on the table and tucked into his roast beef sandwich, while we introduced ourselves and started the demo. It all worked as advertised, but he seemed more interested in his sandwich and whether it had mustard or horseradish. At the end of it, he wasn't impressed with what he and questioned the value of people being able to surf the web from their television. When I made the argument that it was about time shifted viewing of television, and putting people in control, he scoffed at the suggestion. When I said that an up to date electronic program guide (epg) would make this time shifted viewing possible, he yelled back - "Over my dead body". He then left to go to yet another late appointment and I was left to pack up from the demo. WebTV never did launch in Australia. However a complete EPG is now a very real possibility. [listening to: Volare - Dean Martin ]9:35:21 PM  comment [] trackback [] G!
• My Organization • TV
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KERRY PACKER passed away
Just heard on the Today Show. Australia's richest man has passed away. Kerry Packer is dead. So far I haven't found anjything online. [listening to: Vogue - Madonna ]9:11:44 AM comment [] trackback [] G!
• TV
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Tuesday, 20 December 2005 |
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Happy Birtday Digital Diva
Happy Birthday [listening to: If That Isn't Love - Elvis Presley ]6:10:44 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• Family
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Emma Arrigo is blogging!!!!!!!!
My dear little daughter Emma started her blog last night. She wants to create a catalog of all her stuffed toys, so last night I finally got around to helping her. I thought her how to take photos with the digital camera, then I showed her how we can take them off the camera and put them onto the computer, and finally I showed her how she can write her stories using MSN Spaces. She really took to it. I am so proud So, now I have 3 of my 4 children with blogs - Antony, Billy and Emma. Brice is next! [listening to: Dancing queen - ABBA ]9:00:38 AM comment [] trackback [] G!
• Family
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Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
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4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
What do the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 mean?? Well, if you a fan of Lost, they are central to the plot. They are the numbers that were was broadcast from the Island's radio transmitter, Hurley used to win the lottery, they are the numbers on the hatch, and they expand their significance in Series 2. The good folks from TV Squad ponder this and some other questions on a recent post Aussie TV viewers will have to wait until sometime in 2006, but some of us have an inside scoop already. Hey, did you know, if you add them up, they add up to 108. Hmmmmm..... [listening to: M1 A1 - Gorillaz ]5:58:40 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• TV
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King Kong : It's Big
It's a LOOONG movie - just over 3 hours. We all exercised good bladder control. An intermission could have been a good idea. According to an article in Wikipedia, this is the most expensive film ever made in terms of number of actual dollars spent, which is put at about $207 million. I remember going to see the previous remake from 1976, which was a modern take of the tale, where Kong climbed the World Trade Tower, and Jessica Lange was the woman in his life. Anyways, this movie had 3 parts - Part 1 took place in New York during the depression and on a boat, which introduces the characters, Part 2 took place on Skull Island with Kong and all his friends, and Part 3 saw us back in New York for the finale, as well as a bizarre romp on the ice between Kong and Ann Darrow. Our verdict - well the boys are undecided. They liked the film, but felt it went a bit too long. The blogosphere has similar feelings. [listening to: Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head - Gorillaz ]4:47:13 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• Family • My Interests
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The boys and I went to see |
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Thursday, 15 December 2005 |
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Quiz: Which Superhero are you?
It's been a long time between quizzes. This is the one currently doing the rounds, via Geoff, Clarke, Karl, Rob, Joe, Rocky Your results:
[listening to: "Spider-Man" Theme - Michael Bublé ] 10:04:12 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• Random
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Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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ABC : My Favourite Film
Following the success of "My Favourite Book", the ABC went back and polled it's viewers for "My Favourite Film". IMHO, the Top 10 reflects a major Gen-X bias, which is a good thing ;)
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• My Interests
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Top selling DVDs of all time in Australia
The SMH posted a recent article featuring the Top selling DVDs of all time in Australia. It's an update to a similar list from earlier in the year. I hilighted the DVDs we owned on that list, so in keeping with the tradition, here's the update - I score 33 out of the 40.
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• Family • My Interests • TV
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
It feels like only yesterday I took my boys to see the third Harry Potter movie, when it's time to see the next installment. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a lot darker than the previous 3 movies, but I found it a lot more enjoyable. It had the epic story of good versue evil, as well as the story of the coming of age of three, as the gang gets ready for the Yule ball and have to get a date for the dance. As the summary from IMDB says:
As we left the theatre, I pondered the mythology of Harry Potter. The good versus evil theme is pretty uniersal, but it feels to me like Star Wars. I wonder if Harry is Voldemort's son? [listening to: Alison - Elvis Costello ]1:03:57 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• Family • Geek • My Interests
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