How I remember what to watch

This is a list of lists. All the places where I keep lists of TV and radio programmes that I want to watch or listen to.

A text file

This text file (well actually a note in Notational Velocity and Simplenote) is a list of TV programme that have been recommended to me; by word-of-mouth, by Twitter friends, by blogs or by newspapers. These are often US dramas and most likely to be things I buy as a DVD boxset. I just note them down when I can (on my phone or laptop) and the “x3” next to Fringe is because it’s been mentioned 3 times. Some of these (e.g. Supernatural) are ones where I want to remember to buy another series when it’s released, some are new.

A Freeview PVR

I use my PVR quite a lot to record broadcast programmes for watching later. Most programmes recorded on there are through a series link (it records all episodes of a series) and I think all are TV despite it being able to record radio. It’s fairly new, I only decommissioned my 10(?)-year old TiVo recently, so there’s plenty of disk space on there. One anomaly is that BBC 4 doesn’t work, something to do with Guildford transmitter, so the PVR records BBC 4 programmes but they are unwatchable. In which case the programmes sit on the list acting as a reminder for me to watch them on iPlayer.

A dog-eared Radio Times

Yes, i buy the Radio Times. I have a ritual where I generally try to skim through it on a Saturday morning and then fold page corners down when I see something interesting. Then later I will go through these marked programmes and set up the PVR to record or maybe check it in an evening if I’m looking for something to watch. At Christmas I might even draw a ring around programmes.

iTunes

Most of my radio listening is Radio 4 and most of it is live and at the weekend - their regular schedules and my memory helping me do that. All my podcast subscriptions are managed through iTunes though I never manage to listen to many, they’re more likely to be saved for a holiday. iTunes does some management by notifying you that you haven’t listened to a podcast for a while and stopping it updating (the little exclamation marks next to subscriptions). I tend to ignore this and just tell it to keep downloading. I also download one-off radio programmes, mainly discovered through the Radio Times, but I can’t tell you how I do that!

So what?

It's somewhat fragmented with different tools and workflows for TV, DVDs and radio, adapted to meet my particular needs and technology. And I'm sure I'm not typical in any of these habits. Also interesting is where these recommendations came from in the first place - word of mouth from friends and Twitter friends) or articles that happen to mention a programme (“...Niall Ferguson’s Civilization begins on 6 March on Channel 4”).

What about you, what do you do?

Garden birds in 2010

This is a record of what birds we've seen in our garden during 2010. Last year's report can be found here.

Breeding blue tits (up to ten or so). They used our nestbox.
Coal tits
Great tits
Occasional flocks of long-tailed tits pass through.
Four or five greenfinches visit regularly since I set up a sunflower seed feeder.
A pair of bullfinches
Two chaffinches
A pair of blackcaps
A few dunnocks
Robins
Several blackbirds
Woodpigeons
Collared doves
A single thrush
One regular nuthatch
Two goldcrests
Two wrens
One greater spotted woodpecker, actually on the tree next door.
And a rare redwing, brought by the snow.

And for this weekend's Big Garden Birdwatch I spotted 4 blue tits, 4 green finches, 2 blackbirds, 2 dunnocks, 2 robin, 2 bullfinches, 1 woodpigeon, 1 great tit, 1 wren, 1 nuthatch and 1 magpie. And 2 long-tailed tits flew over.

My 2010

Sitting on a rock on the Bjäre peninsula eating lunch in the sunshine, September 2010

It was my first proper year back in R&D and in the Prototyping team and I'm now very definitely a producer and product manager. Certainly more people and less computers. I started writing weeknotes in February, I'm not sure how compelling reading they are but they're a good discipline. And we had a number of interesting projects - an RFID-enabled toy, a trending music site, a Twitter links site, a second screen experiment and lots of storytelling work including the Mythology Engine.

I replaced my old MacBook Air with a very similar looking new Macbook Air, but with less moving parts.

I moved all my note-taking into Notational Velocity (plus SimpleNote for the iPhone).

I didn't blog here very much but I did finally write up some notes on How to build prototypes.

I visited Copenhagen, Southern Sweden, Grenada and Lyon, managing that with two train trips and only one flight.

I took lots of photos with my new Panasonic GF1.

I read lots of books, some on my new Kindle, but listened to less music and sadly played almost none.

Apparently I ran 200-odd miles, including a couple of 10k races.

And I played rather too much Wesnoth on my iPhone on the train home.

Skyr

Skyr is a traditional Icelandic yoghurt, made from sheep’s milk. I’ve finally found a source in the UK, the excellent Scandinavian Kitchen on Great Titchfield Street, just around the corner from my work. they occasionally stock skyr and they apparently have a skyr email list if you want to be notified.

The original, traditional skyr is really thick and is prepared by mixing it with milk to the desired consistency. The version shown here is ready-mixed, but not flavoured or sweetened. And actually comes from Denmark. But I’m assured it tastes right. So, if you want to prepare some skyr…

1) Put the appropriate amount into a mixing bowl.

2) Add sugar to taste and mix thoroughly.

3) Serve in individual bowls, top with a little soft brown sugar and a dash of milk, or even cream, around the edge.

(or serve with bláber compote)

Technologies for creating online relationships from real-world actions

Some recent research into technologies that create online friendships or links using real-world interactions, typically proximity. Any more in the comments please.

Poken

Poken is a physical USB key-like object where you touch other Pokens to share a business card or contact details then sync it over USB To your computer. It seems to use a proprietary wireless technology. If you want to know what’s inside, take a look at Hacking the Poken.

Bump

Bump is an iPhone and Android app that lets you exchange information by “bumping” your phones together. But what’s notable is how it works. From their FAQ…

“Q: How does Bump work?
There are two parts to BumpTM: the app running on your device and a smart matching algorithm running on our servers in the cloud. The app on your phone uses the phone’s sensors to literally “feel” the bump, and it sends that info up to the cloud. The matching algorithm listens to the bumps from phones around the world and pairs up phones that felt the same bump. Then we just route information between the two phones in each pair.”
“Q: No way. What if somebody else bumps at the same time?
Way. We use various techniques to limit the pool of potential matches, including location information and characteristics of the bump event. If you are bumping in a particularly dense area (ex, at a conference), and we cannot resolve a unique match after a single bump, we’ll just ask you to bump again. Our CTO has a PhD in Quantum Mechanics and can show the math behind that, but we suggest downloading Bump and trying it yourself!”

Disney Fairies

Bracelets from Disney that allow kids to become online friends by touching the objects together then returning home and docking them over USB.

“Tink Friendship eBracelets bring girls and Disney Fairies characters together with the mere touch of a band powered by Clickables™ technology. The magic begins with the creation of a Fairy Friendship Kit online at www.PixieHollow.com where a girl can select her fairy avatar, a special message and a gift, then save it onto her Tink Friendship eBracelet to be shared offline with friends. When a girl touches her band to her friend’s and presses a button, her band will glow to confirm that a Fairy Friendship has been made no cords, no computer, just a touch of Pixie Dust! Just like the girls, their online fairies are friends too and can easily find each other in Pixie Hollow.”

Petimo

A research prototype from Keio University where children are only able to accept online friends in a proprietary online social network by bringing their Petimo toys into physical contact. The toys also feature a screen and a wireless connection to allow other interactions and features.

Cuddly robots aim to make social networks child-safe - tech - 07 May 2010 - New Scientist

Petimo: Safe Social Networking Robot for children (PDF)

Facechipz

Facechipz is a proprietary social network that uses the distribution of physical tokens with unique codes to create online friendships.

“The way it works is: parents register their child on the site for a one-time fee of USD 1. Kids purchase packs of five collectible FaceChipz tokens from select retailers and then register each token online by entering the unique code printed on the chip. Once the FaceChipz are registered, kids hand them out to friends. A receiver goes online and they also enter the chip’s code. The FaceChipz database then confirms the friendship, and the two people are linked.”

Online network for tweens requires offline introductions