Year: 2007

EuroNews rules Cyprus news channels

A quote from Kim Andrew Elliot’s post (sourced stats from Famagusta Gazette Online Edition):

Expats in Cyprus prefer their news without analysis. Online survey indicates EuroNews is most popular among expats in Cyprus.

Agreed.

One other advantage of EuroNews that wasn’t mentioned is the total absence of the “talking head”.  It’s funny sometimes to see how each of the news channels tries to solve the problem of the news reader, who doesn’t have much to do while reading the news.  The poor news readers are bounced around the studio, separated into corners or grouped around one table, sitting or standing or sitting again, with empty hands or a piece of paper and a pencil or a laptop computer which is probably switched off because nobody ever looks at it, etc…

EuroNews solved the puzzle years ago.  They don’t show the news reader at all.  Brilliant!  It’s TV for crowing out loud.  It’s about moving pictures.  Show me the footage from the location.  Show me a graphs and scans.  Show me a marquee line or a visual effect if you can’t think of anything else.   But don’t show me the talking head!

Google from the 700 MHz point of view

In the last two years, the well-known fact of Google offering free WiFi Internet access in Mountain View, California has almost been forgotten (except, of course, by people living in Mountain View and Googlers themselves).  At the time of news many were wondering about why Google is doing such a thing.  Not it all suddenly became obvious…

Slashdot reports that Google is preparing for a bid in the upcoming auction set up by FCC for a 700 Mhz radio frequency.  There are a few interesting twists about the offer – “open access” and “nation-wide”.  With these news, it’s hard to see the Mountain View setup as something else rather than a test platform.  With the recently released Android open mobile platform, the connections seem obvious.

The stakes for the band are high, and Google is planning to bid at least $4.6 billion USD dollars.  And they are paying this all out of their own pocket (not sharing with another company, etc).   Wh?  Because there are quiet a few things on Google’s agenda.

If you are like me, and need more information on this whole thing, here are a few pointers:

P.S. : Now those Indian telecoms have to re-think their position.

P.P.S. : In the completely unrelated news,  Ubiquiti Networks announced world’s first 700 MHz WiFi radio.  Here is the official press release.

Photography is my art

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None of the arts – literature, painting, music, or even cinema – touch me in the same way as photography does. Photographic images for some reason go deeper into my brain, heart, and soul, and calm me down or, on the opposite, stir me up like no other form of art.

Music amplifies my mood. Movies shake me sometimes, give me food for thought. But photography gets inside, and changes me. And these changes can’t be undone. After looking at pictures like this one, I’m not the same person anymore…

Cyprus web sites observation

Cyprus web sites seem to be very sensitive about the weather.  Most of the web sites have an “About Cyprus” page, which often says something along the lines of “Cyprus has more than 300 sunny days a year“.  I do agree that Cyprus is pretty well covered with sunlight through out the year, but I wouldn’t go to any exact number of days.  Whatever.  That thing is just marketing.

But then, most of the same web sites have a weather forecast widget somewhere on sidebar.  What?  What for do you need one?  If it’s 300+ sunny days a year, the question of “What weather is it going to be today (or tomorrow)?” is not one of the frequently asked, is it?  It’s like asking “Is it going to rain today?” in UK.  The answer is always “Yes”.

And then, if you look closely on those weather forecast widgets and actually count the number of sunny days, you’ll get … what will you get?

Keep it simple, stupid

It is sometimes amazing how people behave.  Especially when they buy something and they get a choice of what they can get for their money.  Given the freedom to “get anything they want”, they often won’t stick with what they need, they won’t usually know what they want, and so they’ll go for as much as they can carry.  This might be a worthy technique for a supermarket, but it’s a bit different with web sites.

Yes, we (at my job) build web sites.  We do design, programming, hosting, promotion, maintenance, and many other things. And, yes, we can stack a web site with pretty much any technology or interface there is – forms, dynamic menus, AJAX, you name it – we can do it.  Can’t name any?  Good!  Because practice shows that if you can name something, you want it on your web site no matter if it needed or not.

It’s amazing how difficult it is to convince people  to stick with the KISS principle or make them understand that “less is more”.  Make your web site functional.  Put only things that you’d want yourself to use.  Study your statistics and see what people use and what they don’t.  Remove things that they don’t use.  Improve things that they use.  Stay focused and specialized – your web site is not an endless trash bin which you can throw everything into…

One argument that I often use, is of Google vs. Yahoo. When asked which company is number 1, Google’s leadership is never questioned.  When I confirm that Google is the authority, I go for examples.  How do you want your web site to look and feel?

Like this:

Yahoo front page

or like this:

Google front page

If these examples don’t convince, they at least plant a seed of doubt.  After these, it’s much easier to bend the conversation.