It was billed as "the world's first ever 3D broadcast of live sport". Nine pubs across the UK and Ireland kitted out with a special 3D television from LG, and with a mouthwatering clash between Arsenal and Manchester United to provide the excitement.

The location of the pubs was a closely guarded secret with Apple-like clandestineness and attention to detail. Even the power of Twitter and a concerted effort by many to find them was not enough. In the end only a few choice journalists and friends of the pubs in question got to see what was billed as a historic broadcast to the public.

Continue reading "Review of Sky's First Live 3D Sports Broadcast" »

Posted by Alx Klive 3:30PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You could call it "the blind leading the blind..."

Mystery has surrounded today's broadcast in 3D of the Premier League clash between Arsenal and Manchester United. Sky who are claiming (incorrectly) that it is the first TV company anywhere to "broadcast a live 3D TV sports event to a public audience" will not disclose which 9 pubs are kitted out with the necessary 3D TVs. They've done a very good job of keeping it secret.

A list has been going round on popular forums including Digital Spy which is almost certainly incorrect. In fact it appears to be completely fabricated. Sirocco in London is definitely not showing it, a number of people have said Qbar in Dublin is a no-no and The George in Liverpool Street has a sign outside saying "no 3D football".

I've spent all day trying to get to the bottom of it and so far, the pubs that have been mentioned or rumoured to be showing the game (which are not on that forum list) are...

**Only one of these are confirmed and there is mass disinformation abound**

Dublin - Copper Face Jacks (source) or could be Fagan's in Drumcondra (source) (It was Fagan's)
Manchester - The Red Lion Withington (source but pub saying no) (It was the Red Lion)
Edinburgh - Belushis (source but now looking unlikely) / McGuffies (aka the Doric Tavern) (source) | Was shown at Sportsters
Cardiff - Vulcan (source) | Was shown at the Old Arcade
London - The Drayton Ealing CONFIRMED BUT SEE BELOW | The Slug and Lettuce Angel (source) | The Railway Tavern, Liverpool St Station

The info on the pub in Ealing is legit which I've managed to confirm unequivocally BUT it is being shown in a private room for invited press and other contacts of the pub only. The Drayton will be showing a first-come, first-served rerun of the game at 7pm, and the other pubs could well be doing the same.

I hope to update the post with the actual, final list of the 9 pubs so do tell me if you have the info. You can @ me on Twitter or post in the comments below.

One thing is for sure... If you definitely want to see a game in 3D, go to a match, or as one Twitterer suggested... stay home, put on Sky Sports, and drop acid.

Incidentally, the 3D TV being used is a special 47" model from LG to show the game in the pubs. More info on the technology behind the broadcast is here.

UPDATE: My review of the 3D broadcast is here.

Posted by Alx Klive 11:40AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Apple and Steve Jobs really missed the element of surprise with the launch of the iPad. The biggest surprise was that more people didn't figure out what the name would be... iSlate... iTablet... err nyet.

It made watching yesterday's Stevenote (once it had been finally uploaded many hours later) all very humdrum. At one point I was fidgety and... dare I say, bored? The most hyped product launch in all of Apple's history had become a bland exercise in telling us what we already knew or expected. That's not how Steve notes usually go.

My biggest disappointment was the virtual keyboard. It was here that I thought Apple would genuinely wow us. Clearly the ultimate virtual keyboard (for touch typists at least) would be one where you don't actually see the keys. Simply lay your fingers down on the screen in any position or orientation, and start typing. As you type, the keys you are typing appear like magic, with clever algorithms and phrase and spell checking figuring out what you are trying to type. Context and learning your own styles of phrase, size/positioning of your hand and style of writing can all contribute.

This to me was what I was hoping for, and short of that or the device actually levitating, flying over the audience and coming back to the Hand of Steve - the presentation was always going to be a disappointment.

The iBook store / interface was cool and the options for new gaming interactions will lead to genuine innovation and paradigm shift. Price point is good too - I wonder if they are taking a leaf out of the gaming console manufacturers and starting to think loss leader. With the Apps store they can.

Of course I will be buying one, like every other Apple fan boy. As Steve was forced to say in an almost embarrassed way due to lack of general applause (the first applause was 23 minutes in)... "it's much better when you have one in your hands".

I'm sure he's right, and I'll be back saying how amazing it is in future.

Posted by Alx Klive 12:17PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've not heard of Mahjong (or Mahjongg as its sometimes called) it's one of the most popular casual games on the Internet - as big as Solitaire.

Believed to have been invented hundreds of years ago in China, the modern version of the game is similar to Solitaire but uses unique playing tiles, and has different gameplay. It's an intellectual challenge (but not overbearing) and fun.

The object of the game is to clear a 3D pyramid of tiles by matching tiles with one another. You click on one tile, you click on a matching tile and the pair disappears.

Sounds simple enough, but not every matching tile is clickable. You can only click tiles that are able to slide towards the left or the right. Also they cannot be covered by other tiles. This is the least you need to know.

A subtlety is that 'Flower' tiles do not have to exactly match one another (there's 4 of them), and the same goes for 'Seasons' tiles which are sometimes depicted as 4 farmers.

There are many free online versions of Mahjong, but most are over-run with advertising. More links than you could ever want to know can be found here, or, more simply there is a new, excellent version of Mahjong from the Free Video Games Project called simply Free Mahjong.

Enjoy!

Posted by Alx Klive 10:37AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kind folks at Communc8ter have asked me to continue my stories about the early Chemistry parties. As with all their articles, the story is posted exactly 18 years on from the day it happened.

Here's the story of the very Chemistry rave, and how it nearly happened two years earlier, were it not for some unexpected attention from the mob...

The story of the 1st Chemistry Rave

Posted by Alx Klive 11:59PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've written this predominantly for friends and associates who might not be so tapped into all the recent tech scene coverage over Facebook's new Privacy changes.

If you've skipped past the new Privacy notice that has appeared recently on Facebook and haven't had time to read their new Privacy Guide, you need to read this.

The really short version is that accepting Facebook's new 'recommended' privacy settings will mean all your future status updates and posted photos will be available to the general public. That means prospective employers.

Posted by Alx Klive 5:38PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

18 years ago I was fresh-faced, barely out of my teens and up for a global adventure.

I headed to Canada with a box of records and a pair of headphones with plans to work my way as a DJ across Canada and America.

My first stop was Toronto and I never went any further. I started organizing parties, big raves, and club nights under the moniker Chemistry. Details magazine called them "one of the best nights out in North America" and they kick started a scene that continues to this day.

Here's the story as written for the Canadian rave website Communic8ter.

Posted by Alx Klive 11:59PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Within Google Adsense there are two types of channels you can set up to track your earnings - Custom channels and URL channels. Most of us know all about custom channels as they were the first to be introduced and are thus very familiar. If you have set up lots of custom channels it is easy to think that URL channels serve no useful purpose. You would be wrong.

Continue reading "The importance of URL channels in Google Adsense" »

Posted by Alx Klive 10:27AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It might not look like it but... I've completely overhauled my blogging software (Movable Type). It turns out I've been using the same old version (3.2) since my very first blog post and it's long been due for an update.

Ironically it was security problems with its competitor (Wordpress) that prompted the change. At work we've been frantically updating all our Wordpress installations and I figured some spit and polish on my personal blog would be nice too. (It looks a lot nicer behind the scenes)

The only real visible changes are that I've been forced to say goodbye to the blog roll (links to other blogs) due to a technical issue and in its place is a spanking new 'most popular posts' section - on the right.

Expect some other little changes here and there over the coming days... I might even update my photo.

Posted by Alx Klive 5:04PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the last part we fitted the hard drive and installed our first operating system - Ubuntu. Today we install Flash, check the performance of Flash video playback and hook the box up to a TV for the first time.

To install Flash on Ubuntu you will need to enter some commands into the Terminal window. If this frightens you, don't worry, I'll make it super easy and painless.

Continue reading "Build your own set-top box pt 4" »

Posted by Alx Klive 10:54PM | Permalink | Comments (1)