G R A N O L A !

Huzzah.

Has anyone noticed Nine has now added little ads to their watermark when they feel like it. Why don't they be done with it and give up....

Waidaminnit. Did you write that before listening to the show?

damnit. i wanted to be first.

That'll learn me to eat granola before reading the ingredients...

You guy are definably anti SF. In most cases you need to have a suspension of disbelief. Sarah Connor Chronicals is a good bit of fun. Its like saying "Flying High" was a stupid film because it doesn't conform to the laws of physics or normality. Besides it has some good gore and violence in it.

@fourthof5: I'm not anti SF at all. I've been enjoying Sarah Connor and was trying to make the suspension of disbelief point when I brought the original film in for comparison in the discussion.

SciFi done well is always welcome. Battlestar Gallactica is a great series, for example. There are SciFi elements in Lost that we all accept. Sarah Connor Chronicles has problems that are not SF related: John Connor is portrayed as an idiot-savant rather than a potential future leader of the human resistance raised for that purpose, as well as other internal dramatic problems.
There is a general problem with SciFi series produced for television. Suspension of disbelief is sometimes not enough to get through the bad drama elements of a programme. Would I be anti SF if I said that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a terrible film?

Starz is a network of movie channels like Movie Network here.

Starz Cinema
Starz Comedy
Starz Edge

etc.. etc..

But John Connor's just a little kid. He can't be expected to not go out and play like all the other little kids. And, surely, if he can't have a normal childhood then he's not going to be interested in leading the resistance and defeating Skynet.

Thanks for posting that Mike. I understand watermarking as an ID, then to add the ad for the Olympics is one thing but the Gladiators as well is just too much. That is why screens are getting bigger and bigger – the size of the content on screen is continually shrinking.

Fourth – I freely admit I don’t really like Sci Fi (with a couple of exceptions), but didn’t you feel Terminator: TSCC was just rehashing the Terminator 2 elements? Suspension of disbelief aside it just felt (to me) like a cynical grab at the Terminator audience.

*sigh*

Yet again I find myself on the outside looking in - I actually *liked* Terminator 3. But mostly because it was the last ever properly 'old school' action film (i.e. no ridiculous 'bullet time' effects, and actual fight choreography rather than fast-cut editing where you can't tell what is actually happening.)
The series, I haven't seen (yet), but you've managed to make it sound altogether too "A-Team". Which admittedly isn't as funny as James' "Gilligan Island" line, but there you go...

hey, great ep..

dunno where else to put this but here will do:

1) icetv has been updated (but private beta style) and has all the functionality of tivo now..

2) tivo is doing beta testing itself and "you may or may not get to keep the pvr after the trial period"

3) josh's favourite jeopardy contestant was on this american life this week..

that is all .

pete.

S U P E R T U E S D A Y!!

CNN's doing magic things with a political correspondent standing in front of an interactive plasma screen. He's using it like an iPhone to highlight - and then sweep away - individual counties in individual states. More numbers than I can get my poor head around!

No sign of a shredder.

If there's no shredder, it's not truly election coverage. My two cents.

In fairness, there's no Mel and Kochie either. Don't know how they're surviving.

I saw a bit of that CNN nonsense some weeks back on <del datetime="2008-02-06T08:07:14+00:00">The </del>A Daily Show. Ahhh, pointless technology...

Wish I had CNN.

CNN had so many stats in so many different parts of the screen - all changing and updating at different speeds - my head, while not quite spinning, was literally swivelling.

You guys should do some of that sort of stuff on the video podcast.

As usual, a great segment with James this month; with the usual ethical dilemma thrown in - this time regarding the Britney Spears story, in particular the paparazzi car chase on the wrong side of the road:

Josh : As a journalist, how do you separate yourself from the people who would obviously also call themselves journalists who are doing these exploitation [pieces]... in [the Britney Spears] case there seems to be a very definite line but there is that chance you’re all going to get lumped into the same batch?

James: I think, as a rule, [conduct endangering lives] would be about where that line is.

Ross: So if Britney came to London, what would you be doing?

James: Christ... Wishing I wasn’t in London [...] I guess we would be doing the story; which means I would be doing a piece to camera from outside whatever hotel she was staying at or wherever else she might be.

Ross: [Or] institution?

James: Yeah, potentially, but I don’t like the thought of that; certainly there’d be no chasing going on.

Josh: Okay, I think that’s an important line; I think that makes a lot of sense.

James: Other people might say that that’s a false line; that we shouldn’t be standing outside whatever institution she’s in either.

Isn’t it possible that the media’s presence outside a mental institution, with all the people, cameras and lights, could be endangering lives?

Sorry James, your commie ethics set you up for this; I’m sure Bryan Seymour and Dylan Howard never struggle with these questions.

I don't know where to put this. The ABC's new station idents are buried 3-4 minutes into a corporate video here: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newtv/

Really, really impressive. Genuinely.

That website layout is very interesting. The links to the videos are very reminisant of the "iTunes / iPod" image shuffle. That I don't think is a coincidence. Having said all of that. Man do those logos look crap on screen. Have either ABC1 or the Sound Wave. But not both.

Seconded. Too much crap at once in those watermarks.

At least Aunty's not hiding the fact that all this rebranding is copied wholesale from the BBC.

I agree. The new 2/ABC/symbol watermarks are terrible, in idea, style and colour.

By the way - apparently ABC3 has started. Anybody know what's going on there?

ABC3 has a digital LCN (23), which currently is mapped to a straight ABC1 feed. That's all so far. It's supposed to become a kids' channel.

If what I read last week isn't lying, the ABC has already appointed two people to manage ABC3, a confidence move which will only pay off if Labor gives the channel some money.