Saudi Arabia’s Got Talent
This headline in The Times caught my eye. The first paragraph describes a hit show on TV throughout the Arab world.
Much of the Middle East will grind to a halt tonight as an audience of more than 20 million gathers round television sets across the Arab world for the final of the hit show Million’s Poet.
But the surprise is that one of the five finalists is a housewife with four children from Saudi Arabia, who appears fully vielled in black.
Three weeks ago, she stormed into the penultimate round with a blistering attack on extremist Muslim clerics. Her poem, The Chaos of Fatwas, denounced those who issue hardline religious decrees, comparing them to suicide bombers as “monsters wearing belts”. She attacked the segregation of the sexes maintained by preachers who “prey like a wolf” on those who seek progress and peace.
Her performance won an ovation from the audience and the highest mark of the round from the judges, who praised her courage and honesty. As the scores were announced, she punched the air.
She has received death threats for what she has said, but it would appear that she has certain backing from the King.
The West may blanch at Saudi Arabia’s human rights record but Hilal is full of praise for King Abdullah’s efforts to drag the country forward in the face of the same opposition and bile that she has endured in recent weeks.
Radical clerics were outraged when the kingdom opened its first mixed-gender university last year. Fatwas have been issued calling for those who promote equality of the sexes in education and the workplace to be put to death. Through it all, the elderly king continues to force the pace of change.
I wish Hilal all the luck in the world in the final of the contest.
Farewell Harry Carpenter
The BBC has produced some legendary commentators. Harry Carpenter was one of the best and most professional. He was certainly the best boxing commentator.
Sadly, ‘Arry died last night. He will be sorely missed by everyone.
But don’t just take my word for it. George Foreman has just said a lot more on Radio 5.
The Communication Wall
Sometimes you think of ideas, sometimes they just grow on you. This is probably not my idea, as someone has probably already thought of it, but who cares, I’ll post my thoughts on it.
Where is Technology Going?
In fact I’ll concentrate on three pieces of technology.
The first is screens. As I watch this I’m watching the television on a 50 cm. screen. Not very big, but I know, although I don’t know where it will come from, but that in a few years time, I will be able to have a screen perhaps four metres to two or even bigger.
It will also have all the following features :-
- Low power, as a screen that size mustn’t act like a space heater.
- High pixel density, so that small details will be shown well. I would suspect a density about the same on the average laptop.
- Touch screen.
- It might also have other features like being curved and flexible.
How will it be driven? This leads to the second point.
It would probably be driven by Windows, although it might be bigger than 10,000 x 5,000 pixels. But the way computing power is going, that will not be a problem. Remember too, that Windows has the ability to run media displays, do e-mail, show web pages etc. already.
The third piece of technology is apps, such as you see with things like iPhones.
If it is Windows, then these would be easy to write.
I know that I’m biased against Macs, but once the screen is developed it could work with either system. Or Linux too! But it needs to be a generally available computer operating system, that people are happy working with.
You also have to take into account that in a few years or even possibly months, all video and audio content will be instantly downloadable. So if you want to watch Two for the Road, then you just select it and play it over the Internet.
A Few Basic Apps
The screen and its computer driver would support the following :-
- TV and video. Obviously multiple video screens would be created in different areas of the screen.
- It would have an e-mail or SMS address or several, so that you could send messages to the screen, or in fact an area of the screen. How many wives have telephoned their husbands to not forget to put the casserole in the oven? The message would be flashing in his area of the screen.
- It would have the ability to just touch the screen and write a message there, just like you can on a whiteboard. But the computer would remember everything that is written.
- Obviously, you could also use a remote pointer and keyboard to control everything, but when you touch the screen, you would also have the option of a keyboard.
I hope you get the idea.
The Domestic Wall
This is where I started.
All of the clutter of TV’s, video-players, umpteen remote controls would be reduced to a large screen, decent speakers for sound and a pointing device with a keyboard. As I said earlier, all video/audio content would usually be over the Internet or from the hard disc of the computer. Sad to think that albums with all their glorious artwork would be gone, but wouldn’t every audio download have a video feed to go with the sound.
As you could have multiple TV screens, you could monitor several channels at once. I do this sometimes with say cricket on one channel and football on another, whilst listening to the radio. You could click and change at will. Also, if like me you have CCTV cameras here watching horses, then these would be small screens at the edge of the wall.
Or you could show a film or sport on the whole screen.
Then there is the communication aspects.
- E-mails or SMS messages could be sent to the wall.
- Replies could also be sent quickly, just using your fingers.
- Notes could be written for all and sundry.
- All messages would get remembered.
And why not use it as a giant and funky photo-frame when it is not being used? Or to introduce subtle and beautiful lighting effects into the room.
Once you get the basic system going then you can add apps, that do specific tasks.
Imagine a shopping app for Waitrose!
You might have a simple scanner, that is wirelessly connected to the screen. You need two cans of tomatoes, so you just scan one tin, the appropriate number of times. This would build the basis list on the wall, which can be added to so that your on-line shopping never misses what you need.
The Business Wall
This would be basically be similar, but with more emphasis on messages than TV and video.
But who knows?
After all, because apps would be developed, that would handle various business applications, the world is the system’s oyster.
One thing I bang on about to clients is the need to communicate. I’ve found that if the company’s performance database is easily available, then the productivity often improves, as managers spend more time managing, than repeating the same messages again and again. Junior staff too have better information and make better decisions.
The trouble is there are too many managers who believe in mushroom management.
What Next?
Someone develop the screen and the rest as they say will happen!
Cheese: A New Version of the Rook Restaurant?
Cheese, a restaurant in London that serves only cheese, has just opened in London.
I hope it doesn’t have too many echoes of the Rook Restaurant in the Two Ronnies.
The History Boys
I went to see The History Boys last night in Cambridge with a friend.
Perhaps, I should have gone to a matinée as I had a bit of a problem staying awake. But not because of the play which was very good.
I hadn’t actually seen the original stage play, but I did see the film of a few years back with my late wife. The two are different obviously, but the story is virtually the same.
So if it comes to a theatre near you then go and see it. You won’t be disappointed.
Sylvie Vartan
When we were at school doing French we sometimes had French newspapers to read. They were full of stories about Johnny Halliday and Sylvie Vartan, who married about that time.
It would appear that she is still performing.
Sylvie Vartan at L'Olympia, Paris
The details are here.
Under Siege
Under Siege is quite a silly film, but I like it.
It’s just that you have one man taking on the forces of evil by himself.
It’s always a good scenario for a film.
Sexuality in the 1960s
The report by Dr. Linda Papadopoulos, that children are over-exposed to sexual imagery makes some good points, but it seems to give the impression that this is a new phenomenon.
I doubt it is.
Top of the Pops was one of the top BBC shows from the 1960s onwards until it faded away a few years ago. Before the advent of pop videos many of the bands played live, but in many cases when they couldn’t, a dance routine would be performed by Pan’s People. Tame they weren’t, and they did go out in the early evening on BBC1. So when the report talks about rating pop videos and banning some before the watershed, I say “What’s New?” Pan’s People got there fair share of complaints about exposing sexuality to the young.
The report also suggests that certain magazines should not be sold to those under 16. Will this make any difference? I doubt it. When I used to deliver newspapers as a fifteen-year-old, we always used to go back to the shop afterwards and thumb through the dirty magazines. And some were quite dirty! No not quite, very! We didn’t have the Internet, but it didn’t matter.
But what has changed is that in the 1960s and before, you had to beware paedophiles. Hadley Wood, which was near where I live, was full of them. All the kids passed messages between themselves, but we never told our parents as then we’d have been banned from going to the Woods to do things like train spotting on the Great Northern line to the north.
Thankfully, paedophiles seem to have gone from public places.
It’s a funny thing, but some of the most explicit photos I’ve ever seen, I saw when I worked in a factory as a vacation job from University in probably 1966. They didn’t involve children, but they did involve most other perversions.
Was it the same before the Second World War and even in Victorian Times?
Dr. Linda Papadopoulos has made a lot of good points, but I doubt that any will make any difference. Commercial pressures from MTV, Facebook and other American sites will mean that no legislation will be enforceable and kids are always curious and want to experiment. So it could be a losing battle.
What we must do is educate children properly, so that they take everything around themselves with a strong pinch of salt and choose the things that will enrich their lives and make them valuable members of society.
Michael Winner
I must be one of the few people who actually like Michael Winner. He makes a refreshing change from most of the politically correct people that pass for presenters and stars these days.
His new program, Michael Winner’s Dining Stars, is either going to be very good or absolutely awful. But after hearing Michael on Richard Bacon’s program on Radio 5 on Wednesday, I’m hopeful that it could be the former. He was his usal outrageous self on that program, name-dropping like a good un’ and generally slagging off things that he didn’t like. But he also praised things that he did like.
I would agree with his comments on the north. He said that food is awful, the people and the countryside are good. But he did say that he’d never had a decent meal in a restaurant up north. Until a few weeks ago, I would have agreed with him, as being a coeliac, asking for a gluten-free meal up north brands you as a food-wimp and a southern softie.
But then, I had that wonderful lunch at The Manor House Inn at Carterway Heads. So perhaps, Michael should try that unassuming pub!
We always associate Michael with violent films, but he did make one of my favourites, Hannibal Brooks. He also produced, directed and wrote that film, which I think says a lot about Michael.
If I had to have a few celebrities at a dinner party, they’d be Michael Winner, David Bellamy, Janet Street Porter and Princess Anne. I’m not allowing dead people, but if I did, I’d include Danny Blanchflower, Ian Dury, John Lennon and my of course my late wife.
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll
I finally saw this biopic of Ian Dury’s life.
Was it good?
Yes! I laughed and cried and left the cinema in a better state than I arrived.
That is all you want.
But don’t go if you don’t like real swearing. And I mean lots of it, with both the f*** and the c*** words.
The Anonymous Widower 