TV was supposed to kill cinema, so was the VCR, so was DVD, so was online and downloading movies. Yet cinema has survived, and in fact has thrived. I walked over the park to our local cinema this morning and watched as my children were enthralled in the latest Pixar offering. Now there’s a clever...Read More
In the late eighteenth century, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham devised a circular building that allowed the observers in an institution to keep an eye on the inmates without the inmates knowing when (and if) they were being observed. The design was a circular structure with a tall central tower. He called it a Panopticon,...Read More
I’ve been noticing a trend over the past year or so, that may point to the death of the website (and world wide web) as we know it. Like you, dear reader, I have apps on my iPhone (and now iPad) that are holding more and more of my attention. I am visiting ‘web sites’ less...Read More
Formed in 2006, courted by Microsoft, Google and Facebook (but, so far, thwarted), Twitter is the brain-crunchingly simple service that at the same theme, makes no sense and makes perfect sense. On the one hand, what is the point of these short bursts of text (140 character max), SMS-like, that appear all over the place?...Read More
Two years ago we had our official launch of the WA Internet Business Association (eGroup) and we were casting around for an inspirational speaker. As the inaugural President, I had one name on my list, the CEO of iiNet, Michael Malone. Anyone in WA would know of his company, that seemed to mop up all...Read More
[tweetmeme source=”ChazGunningham” only_single=false] In 1977, at the height of disco, Randy Newman shot to #2 in the US with his politically incorrect ditty, Short People. “Short People got … no reason … Short people got no reason … To live” he sang. Was it an ironic dig at ignorance and prejudice? No, said Newman, when...Read More
A few years ago I picked up a stat from I know not where that “after 8 seconds, if your web site does not load and users know where to go, 50% will leave the site completely“. I reckon that is more like 2 seconds today. Two seconds. Reminds me of the highway code saying...Read More
We continually see things that would never have been possible just a few years ago. We rarely stop to even notice… A few days ago I was sitting at a coffee shop with some friends, and to the right and behind me a rather hassled young mother hurridly put an iPad in front of her two...Read More
Armed with my Banda copies, I would march into 5B business class looking ever so confident with my pre-prepared over head projector (OHP) slides ready for all comers. The burly boys in the back row were suitably unimpressed as I swung into action, but I ploughed on regardless. Business class last thing on a Friday...Read More
Agh the smell of the spirit, the beating click click click of the drum as you turned it, the remnant of wax on your fingers … I come to pay homage to the old Banda machine (as we called it in England). Invented in 1923 and basically not developing much since, destined to be put...Read More
