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Saturday, 22 July 2006 |
Zune Coming Soon
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Friday, 21 July 2006 |
Intriguing - Former Yahoo chief takes ninemsn reins
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Tuesday, 6 June 2006 |
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NERDS FC FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER : The End
Alas, Nerds FC has come to an end. It was wonderful. SBS will be repeating it -----Original Message----- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + NERDS FC FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Greetings Fan Club Member! Well, how good was the final episode of SBS’s smash hit series Nerds FC? Round our way streets were deserted, the pubs were empty and the 24 hour Laundromat/LAN computer gaming centre shut for the night because they knew there’d be no business. Everyone was watching to see how the boys did and hear how they’d changed from day one. You can imagine the club feels a bit strange right now – now that it’s all over. But don’t get me all emotional, I thought I’d cried myself out till I started writing you this exclusive members-only newsletter. Let me concentrate on giving you the skinny on stuff that didn’t make the show. For example: - Before Nerds FC went on to the pitch, they were waiting in the tunnel area of the stadium. NSW Premier Morris Iemma was just leaving and he shook hands with a few of the boys and wished them well for their game. - John Truong and a number of the other lads have joined local football clubs following the series. Also, they see each other socially every few weeks. - After the show, the boys took on the production team who made the show. I saw the game and can verify that it was an entertaining game to watch and the scoreline was 6 – 4 to the production team. The boys maintained they let the crew win but lawyers are looking into that claim….. Okay, that’s my lot. I’ve got subscriptions to look into and next season to consider but before I go let me say thank you for not putting me in the automatic spam filter section of your inbox. I hope you enjoyed the show and have found the newsletters interesting. If you see me in the street, don’t hesitate to come up and say hello and who knows, maybe we’ll be following the boys in blue again on another campaign. STOP PRESS: Hold on, I’ve just found out SBS are re-running the whole Nerds FC series every night at 8.00pm from Thursday 8th – 15th June! Now’s your chance to re-live the whole adventure, catch any episode you foolishly missed or get your mates to watch the show you were quacking on to them about the first time round. Do yourself a favour: don’t miss the Nerds FC experience! Stay on-side. Yours in football, Webster Treasurer, NFC Fan Club --------------------------------
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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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Sunday, 6 November 2005 |
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Early Birthday Present for Me
It was a signed copy of the Steve Waugh autobiography "Out Of My Comfort Zone". Yes, it was signed by the great man himself. The dedication read:"To Frank, Come on The Saints", complete with signature. Well, I was lost for words. Thanks Andrew for this most thoughtful gift! [listening to: Pump It Up - Elvis Costello & the Attractions ]7:47:47 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• My Friends • My Organization
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I got a nice surprise this week at work. I got an early birthday present from |
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Tuesday, 26 July 2005 |
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Journey home
I'm back following my trip to MGB in Atlanta. Here's my return leg
I found it a tiring trip, but a tremendous event. And after a good night sleep, all will be well. I've written a few posts about ths trip over on my other blog:
5:35:46 PM comment [] trackback [] G!
• My Organization
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Tuesday, 19 July 2005 |
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On the way to Atlanta
I'm at the airport, getting ready to head over to Atlanta for a Microsoft event, we call MGB. This is what my travel schedule looks like, which is worse than last year :
I'm not looking forward to 28 hours of travel and arriving at my hotel post midnight. I just got an email that my hotel has changed, so I need tio check-in, sleep, check-out and travel to the next hotel. Joy. I don't expect any pity. [listening to: Working For The Man - Mental As Anything ]10:09:07 AM comment [] trackback [] G!
• My Organization
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